New home infested with moths. How serious do we treat this?

[mothballmaureen]

We've recently moved into a house with wool carpets and they are infested with moths. An elderly couple lived in it and obviously couldn't maintain the house properly. One passed and the other moved into care. The house was vacant for 6+ months before we moved in so the moths have gone to town on the carpets.

When I hoovered the room most badly affected it became apparent how badly the carpets were damaged. Moths were flying up and the carpet was just disintegrating. Within minutes the hoover canister was completely full of dust, carpet fibres, moths, and I'm sure larva and eggs. I saw a bunch of months near the skirting board burrow and disappear down into the carpet, so now I'm worried they're also in the floorboards. The worst patch where the carpet is almost bare (and in some patches is) is about 1m x30cm but there are patches all over the room as well as the stairs and lounge.

We've got new (synthetic) carpets booked to be fitted in a couple weeks. Will this solve the problem, or do I need to fork over £2k to get the house fumigated? I've never had to deal with moths but I know they can be a real pain to get rid of.

The "Moth Stop" products are good. Use a combo of spray (the carpet spray) and moth bombs which you set off in each room with the doors closed and then go out for a long lunch.

Getting rid of (or keeping control of) moths is a real pain in the arse but if you make it part of your general housekeeping roster you should be able to sort it yourself.

Also once the old carpet is taken up, spray all the floorboards with the spray, or better still bomb the area again.

And constant hoovering of course.

If I were you I would definitely pay for the fumigation. There was a big court case about this involving a very expensive London property a few years ago and they spent a fortune and couldn't get rid of them (I suspect it was a worse infestation but still). can't remember the remedy whether it was unwound or just damages but the buyer won in the High Court. Moths are very difficult to treat so I would do whatever you can now to reduce the risk of them returning. What a nightmare for you.

They are a pain in the arse to get rid of but it can be done especially if you are removing the carpets

i used the Acana products. Loads of spray and the sticky catchers.

They feed on keratin so love wool and dust. Make sure all skirting boards are as free as dust as possible and spray right into where the carpet meets the skirting boards. I find mine get deep in the burrows on the stairs.

you can get professionals in but in the end I didn’t need them. It took a few weeks to be rid of them and I still see the occasional one now but I keep on top with a regular spraying.

luckily they fly and react quite slowly so are easy to kill if you spot them flying or on walls.

We've been in our place 3 years and are still fighting our moth battle.

Pull the carpets up and get rid ASAP, well before your new capers arrive, use the moth fumigating products in each room snd then redo a week later then put your lovely new carpets down.

It’s a good job you’re losing the carpets anyway because they are greedy carpet eaters!

Out of interest, can you use these products in rooms full of your possessions - furniture, books, electronic items etc or do you need to empty the room?

Thank you! Great tip. I've been wondering what the best thing to would be. I wasn't sure if I should leave the carpets down to help contain them to those areas. I was worried if we ripped them out now the larva and moths would spread around the rest of the house. I will look to have them removed asap and then spray and clean the rooms every few days.

There are a couple rooms with newer synthetic carpets already which appear to be fine. I think the sellers must have had them replaced just before the property went to market because they look new.

We don't plan to replace those, but I will spray them just to make sure.

Great to know. Thanks for sharing your experience. I've got some of the acana products and have been using them on the affected areas of the carpet and sprayed a couple of my wool coats that just to be sure.

I'm going to look into getting a more industrial moth killer that I can spray across the entire carpeted areas.

And empty your hoover regularly! I found by far the biggest concentration of live and hatching moths in my house was inside my hoover bag

Rip the carpets up now and with daily thorough vacuuming and some treatment it should be under control before the new carpets arrive.
pack all woollen clothing in plastic bags
Lack of cold winters and central heating make moths more of a year round problem now.

I had carpet moths and replaced carpets with synthetic carpet. Problem solved.

I have them in my living room (wool carpets) but not in the other rooms (synthetic). There were some under the bed and it turned out they were infesting a rolled-up wool rug under there. I've been spraying the living room with lavender, which helped a lot.
A couple of weeks ago I found a big sheaf of lavender that had been chucked out by someone at local allotments. So I hung it in the living room and the moths have gone, apart from the odd one that I can squash. But if I was having new carpets I'd fumigate and get synthetic (sadly).