Mysterious Holes Appearing in Carpet..... Yikes

[DeedeeDashwood]

Can anyone shed any light on this conundrum? I admit to being entirely baffled by the holes-in-the-carpet phenomenon which I'm experiencing, because the holes in question are nothing like what's shown in photos of damage caused by moths, beetles or silverfish and they don't seem to be anything to do with wear and tear either.

The holes, of which there are now four (two in the living room, two in the bedroom) have appeared over the last couple of months and all take the same form: they're between one and two centimetres across, go right through to the base fabric and feel crispy around the edges, rather like a scorch or a chemical burn might cause. I've neither dripped anything caustic onto the carpets nor dropped any hot or flaming objects onto them.

The first two holes are in a part of the living room where I've been known to sit and use an infra red heat lamp on my ankles, but I've been doing that for years with no hint of scorching or even the slightest whiff of singeing....and I've never used the lamp in my bedroom at all, so we can rule that out. I've been asking myself whether part of the underside of my Hoover-type upright vacuum cleaner might be getting hot and burning the carpet somehow, but if that were the case there'd be similar burns all over my home - and the floor of the carpeted cupboard where the vacuum cleaner lives would definitely be burnt as well, which it ain't.

Both the two holes in my bedroom carpet appeared in the last five days, just as mysteriously as those in my living room. Crispy around the edges, with no telltale signs of insect activity and with no other holes anywhere nearby.

There's got to be a simple explanation....hasn't there?

I'd be really interested to hear your thoughts on this, not least because I don't fancy another hundred or so holes with crispy edges in my carpets.

Like, zoinks, Scoob.

Look on your window sils, can you see any carpet beetles on them?

Nope. All clean as a whistle. And examining the holes with a magnifying glass reveals nothing either, except that they're holes.

Hot dang.

We had this and it was carpet moths. I was convinced it wasn't but then I put out some moth traps in the vicinity and caught loads of the little blighters!

Did your holes have the crispy edges?

...and how many hundred traps dd you have to put down, for how long, to achieve a positive result?

We've had problems with carpet moths. They only seem to eat the carpet around the edge of the room and the edges of the holes don't appear singed, so I'm not sure that's your problem.

If they are carpet moths they are a nightmare to get rid of!

Have you got glass or similar ornament/vase/mirror that is causing sunlight to be concentrated on those spots (burning-glass effect) at certain times of the day? It would be difficult to see as it would vary, depending on the weather, but this has been known to start fires.

As someone battling against moths, they'd be my first thought. Get some sticky traps and place in dark corners, under beds etc. Check daily. You also need to vacuum thoroughly to get rid of eggs/larvae (this is destruction phase), although we didn't realise we had a problem until we saw moths.

Well, I don't know what to think at this stage - but what the heck, I went out anyway and bought two carpet moth/carpet beetle traps for an exorbitant price at Johnson's dry cleaners, in an attempt either to catch carpet gobblers or to rule them out of the equation. Time will tell.

As for the idea of sunlight causing burns in the carpets, it always makes sense to bear that sort of thing in mind as a possible cause - but in this particular instance, both zones of carpet-baldness are in shady areas: one beneath and behind my desk in the living room and the other at the end of the bedroom that's farthest from the windows and shaded further by the bed, with no mirrors or ornaments which might reflect or focus sunlight.

Can I ask how expensive it all works out if you have to spray the rooms with moth and beetle spray? And do you have to spray the entire house, to make damned sure you haven't missed anything?

Thanks so much to all of you so far for having shared your thoughts.
Much appreciated.

The world seemed a much brighter place before I read about crawly things that might infest my carpets.

We haven't sprayed the house, but I have done a massive clear out so I can vacuum all carpets every day (feeling guilty because I've skipped today).The traps and refills are available on Amazon, but the last lot I bought still worked out at £1 for each 'strip'. After a month, we're down to single figures on each of the traps every day. In one bedroom, there haven't been any for a couple of days.

The carpets are ruined, but the damage can't be seen, and I'm hoping that if I can eliminate the eggs through vacuuming, I might get rid of them. I've washed all curtains anything else they could be using as a nesting place. Kirstie Allsop keeps a freezer next to her washing machine to freeze stuff that can't be washed at 60 degrees. Don't know if it was her or Suzanne Moore, but I read an account by one of them bemoaning the fortune they'd spent having the house Rentokilled only to have moths back a year later.

At least, with the traps, you'll know if moths are your enemy.

If it’s moths the larvae look like rolled up bits of paper. I bought a spray from Amazon to treat the rug. Make sure you throw out any vacuum bags after using in case any larvae remain. They definitely prefer dark corners of rooms. I’m getting non wool carpet when I replace any flooring.

Well, this gets even more baffling. The traps (£17.98 for two) have now been down for more than 24 hours and have caught absolutely nothing - not even fluff. Mind you, I vacuumed before putting them down, so possibly that's cramped the beasties' style momentarily, but I'm still scratching my head over the fact that whilst the living room carpet is wool, the bedroom one is pure manmade fibre.....so does that mean I'm barking up the wrong tree altogether in imagining that moths or beetles may be to blame?

I really do need to figure this one out, because I hope to move house soon and if tiny insects are living somewhere in my soft furnishings I certainly don't want them to move house with me.

Cynderella, my heart really does go out to you. What an awful situation for anyone to be in. Oddbutnotodd, there are no visible larvae or larvae casings, which is reassuring in a small way but the damage itself continues to look uncomfortably like photos of moth and beetle damage. And as for the crispy edges..... What in tarnation is that all about?

(Yes, I threw out the vacuum bag, just in case the cupboard where the vacuum lives got invaded as well....as it might still do.)

Thanks again for all your thoughts and suggestions, people.

Mine did have crispy edges - I was equally baffled at first. We put our traps under furniture in the room, so drawers, beds etc, anywhere you don't usually hoover. That's how we worked out what the problem was.

In the end we had to rip the carpets out unfortunately. We replaced with moth proof ones.

I have significant areas of damaged carpet (with crispy edges!) in two bedrooms and have had the problem for 3 years now, including small fluttery moths coming out every night in summer . It's been quite depressing to be honest!

This year I decided to make a concerted effort to get rid of them and read up a bit on the life cycle - started with spraying/putting powder down where tread and riser meet on every stair (apparently this is one of their favourite places to lay eggs) and round skirting boards. I bought two moth traps like OP's and put them down by the skirting boards near the areas of damage - these have caught quite a few.

Hoovered and brushed much more often and used industrial amounts of spray and moth powder in the worst affected rooms.

Started a 'moth buster' system where anyone could and must summon me at any time up till midnight to despatch any of the little blighters spotted - in previous years I suspect people weren't owning up to sightings for fear I'd arrive bearing my Moth Kit just as they were settling down!

And although it's prime moth season, this year for the first time we've had relatively few sightings! I'm cautiously optimistic but know I must never let my guard down again...

Good luck OP and anyone else suffering - it's not a nice thing and will unfortunately take a bit of work to get over but can be done and maybe you won't be as badly affected as we were.

This is beginning to remind me horribly of an incursion of mites I suffered about fifteen years ago, when even keeping the windows shut to stop them getting in didn't work (because they were small enough to creep around the window casements). But at least that ended when the temperature dipped in autumn. As for this situation....I despair.

I've just sprayed the bedroom and the hallway outside the bedroom door with vinegar-water mixture, which is allegedly effective in this context. It certainly works on plant aphids, I can vouch for that myself. As for the traps, they've still caught nothing. And as for egg cases/larvae casings, I've found none at all so far, which only seems to deepen the mystery.

Aquicknamechange2019 and ApplesinmyPocket, thanks for mentioning that your holes had crispy edges too, even though it wasn't really what I wanted to hear. Ripping up the carpets and dumping them.....battling the moths for three years.....it really is the stuff of nightmares, isn't it? You poor souls. And I've read that the blighters can get into your bedding and your clothes too if you're not careful, which makes my hair stand on end.

Please God, take me now.

To add more to the mix - there are carpet moths and clothes moths. Both will eat what they can though. Our clothes have had moth damage, but we put it down to other things because sometimes the holes were tiny. Swimming towels at the back of the cupboard were ruined.

The eggs are tiny - mm long and very hard to see. The larvae are tiny maggoty things - if they're bigger, they've been eating a while. I've washed almost everything at 60deg and have towels and the like in zip up bags now. My clothes are folder Marie Kondo style and in boxes on shelves rather than hanging.

I think that if you vacuum EVERYWHERE regularly, you should get most of the eggs before they hatch into hungry larvae. Vacuuming carpets and washing clothes should get rid of larvae and stop the cycle. The traps only attract male moths, I think.

On a positive note, it's made me get rid of loads of stuff, sort out a lot more and vacuum regularly.

I'm glad you're still able to adopt a philosophical attitude, rather than just spending all day screaming in a padded cell.

Vacuuming EVERYWHERE regularly.... Not sure I'm physically capable of that, unless we're talking once-every-two-months regularly, which we're obviously not. Shifting all the furniture in the bedroom around half-kills me now that my dh (detested husband) is no longer here to do it for me. Maybe I should just cut my losses and burn my own home down.

Like anyone else, I'm left scratching my head about how the infernal carpet-noshers got into my home in the first place. Through an air vent just above the skirting boards? In the turn-ups of my jeans? Or is this a punishment from above, due to my wicked life? Probably it's that.

Reading this in fear... about to have wool carpets installed in bedrooms...
is there anything we can do in advance to prevent the little blighters?
I have some cedarwood essential oil which I've heard they don't like. It's not going to cut it is it ?

We have a mix of floor boards, tiles and rugs downstairs. Synthetic carpet on stairs and wool carpets in bedrooms. With the bedroom carpets, I feel responsible because I didn't vacuum under and behind furniture nearly often enough.

Now, I am vacuuming every day including under beds. One is a divan, and that's moved every few days. Chests of drawers moved once a week. Nothing cotton left out for them - i pulled washing out of the laundry bin in the bathroom and one of the bastards flew out - unless it's going to be washed soon.

Traps not getting many at all now - I fear that they will have laid eggs somewhere I haven't thought of.

For me, the "somewhere I hadn't thought of" turned out to be a drawer full of scarves and gloves under the coat cupboard in the hall. There was a lot of wool in there and it had clearly been an absolute feast for the moths!

@TiddleTaddleTat

Reading this in fear... about to have wool carpets installed in bedrooms... is there anything we can do in advance to prevent the little blighters? I have some cedarwood essential oil which I've heard they don't like. It's not going to cut it is it ?

We’ve been battling this for the past couple of weeks but before we’d noticed them, we had intended to get a new study carpet anyway (luckily that’s where the vast majority of damage is). To get rid of them, we got a spray from amazon that kills every life cycle but also recommends that you spray every six months, even with no signs of them as it will deter them. So when we get our new carpet we are going to spray the edges once it’s laid.

As for an easier question of how they get in, there’s so many ways. I had a long google because I was so upset as I pride myself on cleanliness and thought my house was spotless and also fairly minimalistic with no clutter, so I really wanted to know what had happened. The moths can simply fly through your window and lay eggs in a dark undisturbed place. Their natural habitat is birds nests, so if you live in the countryside like us, you’d potentially be quite open to this. If you buy second hand rugs, soft furnishings etc or they can be on there. They can even just get bought into the house on shoes/pets etc.
Our worst affected area was behind our desk, which weighs 69kilos so I struggle to pull it out on my own to hoover behind it, so it doesn’t get hoovered there’s as much as the rest of the house.

We noticed them three weeks ago so We’ve sprayed everywhere, even though there was only evident in two rooms. I also got lots of pieces of cedar wood and have put these behind bulky items of furniture. Since the spray, I haven’t seen a moth so I’m hoping we’ve sorted it.

However, the lack of any lava casing is weird in the OP case, as this is when I realised we first had them!

We didn't have noticeable lava casings but we had hundreds of the wee buggers, or so it felt!

To PP who's buying a new carpet - ask the retailer how you can protect them. They may have a spray or other treatment they can apply when fitting.

@MrsR87 Could you link to the spray you've been using please?
You sound so careful!
We are probably a carpet moth's dream. Buy loads of second hand clothes, blankets etc. Can't say I move heavy furniture to vacuum behind and underneath.
We could ask the carpet shop but as they are roll ends I think I'd rather spray ourselves once it's down as they are likely to add on quite a cost for a 'treatment'

@TiddleTaddleTat

www.rugremedy.com/rugremedy-shop/Carpet-Moth-Killer-p131035180

This is what we used. Three weeks since we did and and seems good so far. We intend to do it again in September unless a problem arises before then. We will then continue to do it twice a year as preventative measures seems to be better. Will also spray the edges of our new carpet when we get one.