Help! Carpet-eating crawlies!

[BessSedgwick]

Moved the sofa to vacuum today (never again). Found a big patch of eaten away carpet and loads of little flying things all over it! Closer inspection revealed loads of piles of what looks like sand and some wriggling grubs... I attach a photo of the flying thing and the wriggling things.

Any idea what they are or what I can do apart from emigrate immediately?! Thank you!

They're clothes moths.

Buy some spray from amazon and replace your carpet with one that's synthetic rather than wool.

Yikes, those are clothes moths and larvae; hoover them all up and empty the bag, then get cracking with some traps and repellents. If you have a steam cleaner, use that. You need to keep repeating any treatments as they may have laid eggs there and elsewhere.

www.buildingconservation.com/articles/carpet-beetles-clothes-moths/carpet-beetles-clothes-moths.htm

Looks like clothes moths 😖

So sorry, but they’re clothes moths and are an absolute bastard to get rid of. Might just be best to burn the house down and claim on the insurance...

Bowl!! 🤢🤢

Amazon is your friend here

Moth! My nemesis. Get some carpet spray. Hoover regularly, and get some little repellent things to put around. And remember It’s a war, not a battle.

Get smoke bombs from Amazon!

Presumably a wool mix carpet? Burn it!

Ooh, we've got the moths (but I've been led to believe they are carpet moths rather than clothes moths) but have never found the wiggly things. Logic dictates that we should have the wiggly things too I suppose
They don't do any harm (unless you're a wool carpet) and yes, they are a bastard to get rid of

Clothes moth. They adore woollen carpets. We had the same.
Get this spray ( we used to buy from our corner shop) remove furniture, hold your breath and open windows and use a whole can on the carpet and any soft furnishings and leave the room for the day.

Hoover

Get some clothes moth papers and lie them under sofas. They love dark places.

Do the same with every room

Spray all cupboards throughly and all clothes. particularly ones with coats in. They loooove coats. More moth papers

That should keep them at bay for a few months. They are at their worst when the weather warms up.

As a PP said they are here to stay. You'll never eliminate them but you can reduce the damage.

The 'sand' is the eggs and it's the grubs that scoff the carpet.

Evil.

Oh shit yes those are clothes moths.

Hoover the entire carpet, moving everything else that's on it, and bin the hoover bag outside the house immediately. I had to throw out my whole carpet when I found a few different bald spots.

Next check all your other carpets which could have any wool content. Sorry that also means moving anything on them cos the grubs like the hidden, undisturbed places.

Then wash or freeze all your clothes, linen, curtains etc and store in bin bags, otherwise they'll get eaten too.

Google how tf to get rid of them completely while all those laundry loads are going.

Make sure you've thought of everything you have - if there are any clothes stored in an attic for example they may need to be washed too. They eat wool and silk so think old wedding dress, posh curtains, thick hiking socks etc that you might have stored away out of season.

Good luck!

We had a moth problem in our rented accommodation a few years ago. I had noticed a few of the moth larvae wriggling up the walls, it was grim. I lifted the carpet in the corner with larvae, and hoovered the (hundreds of) cocoons. There were so many of them, I think it had been going on for a while. We would see the odd moth flying around the house, but it didn't seem much of an issue until I found cocoon central under the carpet. Keep hoovering them, and use a spray. We did get on top of it in the end.

We had these under the bed and behind very large heavy wardrobes. We burnt the house down. Actually pulled up the carpet and replaced with wood flooring.

Carpet beetle larvae eat fabric...

Oh no... thank you so much for all the advice, tomorrow's task is definitely starting on all these things!

Just wondering about all the sprays - any advice on cat friendliness? We have a house cat (FIV positive) so can't easily remove him for long periods of time, particularly under current circumstances...

But a big freezer and put any clothes you want to keep that are made of natural fibers (wool, silk etc) in it.

Then smoke bombs. This is quite series and after trying to defeat them (and losing a lot of lovely clothes) and a huge bill from pest control, we moved house.

It was so time consuming and also quite upsetting.

Good luck!

Also would ever ever have a wool carpet again! Synthetic every time.

The spray it's pretty hardcore. You don't want any living being in that room for a good couple of hours. Do your lounge and maybe a bedroom and shut the doors and keep cat out of there. It might take a couple of weeks to do the whole house.

Could you keep your cat in a carry case in the car for an hour? It's not ideal, but at least your cat will be out of the house after spraying. Alternatively, perhaps you could keep your cat in the bathroom for an hour or two, with a window open for ventilation. I have a house cat too, we put him in the conservatory for a few hours. Hoovering the cocoons was more effective than spraying for our moth problem. You need to keep on top of it, hoovering the bastards up every few days. I used moth traps in wardrobes, luckily the moths enjoyed eating the carpet more than my clothes! I would recommend lifting the carpet up if there is an area worse than others. The larvae like to hide under skirting boards so you need to lift the carpet to get to them.

Honestly I would get rid of the carpet in that room.

Also spray the hell out of any soft furnishings in that room.

If there is anything you can wash at 60, or put in freezer, do that.

Then put pheromone traps everywhere.

I had exactly the same scenario. Only it was a Persian Rug under the sofa.
Big Mistake. ThousandsHuge.
Which reminds me I must check it. 😫