How Quickly Can Carpet Moths Damage a Carpet in Twyford?

The Actual Rate

• An egg hatches in roughly one to three weeks
• A larva feeds for two to three months, and considerably longer in a cool room. This is the only stage that eats anything
• Pupation takes a couple of weeks
• An adult lives a few weeks and does not feed at all

So a fortnight is between a tenth and a quarter of the damaging stage, for one generation. The amount of carpet consumed in two weeks by a population you had not previously noticed is not measurable.

What a Holiday Genuinely Changes

1. Nothing gets vacuumed for two weeks, so adults, debris and shed cases accumulate visibly
2. Nothing gets walked on, so the small amount of suppression traffic provides is gone
3. Nothing gets moved
4. Heating on a low timer keeps development going while removing every interruption
5. Curtains closed, which suits them
6. Windows shut, so what emerges stays in

None of that speeds up the biology much. All of it makes the result visible at once instead of a few at a time.

The Real Timeline For Damage

1. Months 1-6: nothing visible. Feeding under one item
2. 6-12 months: a patch that would be obvious if that item moved
3. 1-2 years: a clear bare area, with eggs laid next door
4. 2-3 years: more than one room, and the carpet may be a replacement rather than a repair

So if you came home to moths, the honest reading is that it has been going for the better part of a year and this is the first time it has been visible enough to register.

What To Do In the First Week Back

1. Do not vacuum it all away before you have looked — the debris tells you where
2. Note which rooms the moths are actually in, over a few days
3. Move the heaviest item in the worst room and look with a torch
4. Check the carpet edge against the skirting there
5. Photograph and date anything you find, and mark the edge of any patch
6. Then vacuum thoroughly, edges included, and empty outside

Treatment starts from £220. Coming home to it is a good moment to deal with it, because you have a clear picture for once — but it is a picture of something old, not something new.