To move house rather than extend because of moths

[Purtyburty]

We live in a semi detached house and have been here for a decade. It was not a forever home but with the increase in house prices we began to think of it as our forever home and looked into extending to create the space that is functional for our growing family. We are in the process of planning permission, but have just found a moth, spider and woodlouse infestation in our loft. Like a pretty severe one. This is recent as we were up in the loft a couple of months ago and there was nothing.

A couple of years ago we got new insulation and ot boarded for storage. There weren’t any major issues then either. It now seems severe. I have heard how difficult it is to eradicate moths and how they totally mess up your house so I now feel a bit deflated about investing a huge amount of money into extending. I also feel irked at the thought of it.

Would you move or extend? Moving is a pretty big deal, we like where we live and can’t afford a bigger house on this area so we would probably be moving sideways but paying a lot more money for what we currently already have.

If you have a pest infestation in the loft, isn’t that likely to be picked up on by whoever ends up buying it?

Have you investigated how much it would cost to get rid of the critters?

You will have to sort it out or you might get sued by your buyers! There was a big story about that recently in the news.
And when it's sorted you might as well stay, if you like it apart from that!

Yes I read that story a while back. We are definitely going to tackle the problem as we would not be moving immediately. I have ordered a load of equipment online and looked into paying for pest control. The hate the thought of it so would not allow it to continue without tackling the problem.

Moths don't mess up your house; they can't eat anything that isn't made from animal proteins (wool, fur, feathers, silk) and if you don't learn to control them you'll just take them to the new house in your clothes.

Don't have wool insulation, carpets, underlay, any of that. (If you have wool in the loft, there's your problem). If you must have wool / silk clothes, wrap them in plastic and freeze for a few days. Use spray, sticky traps, pheremone traps, dessicant dust. Hoover everywhere, including under furniture. Do all of these things at once; attack on all fronts. Maybe even think about getting some of the tiny parasitic wasps that kill them (can be mail-ordered). They can be stamped out but you have to be determined and root them out EVERYWHERE. They especially like anywhere dark and undisturbed (like a chest of woollen blankets or drawer full of woolly jumpers that hasn't been opened for months). Seriously, anything wool / silk, unless you really can't live without it, get rid.

Woodlice indicate damp and it's unusual for them to be so high up; I'd be checking the loft for leaks. As for spiders, lofts just do have them and it's the time of year when spiders are everywhere. Autumn / winter will reduce them a lot.