moths in carpet - anyone had to tackle them got any tips =!

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We had small moths coming into one room from open windows in the summer. I ignored them. Now found evidence of them (lavre/egg laying? lavre-sp?) in an area behind the tv unit that's not easy to hoover without heavy having of unit. Evidence is a hole in carpet. Horrified cleared up and hoovered thought end of it but now found further along behind another unit. Anyone got any tips from own experience apart from getting rid of carpet?

We have case bearing moths - they weave themselves little tubes from the carpet and live inside. They look like little white fluffy grains of rice on the carpet.

Bloody things are a nightmare. I don't think they are as destructive as normal clothes moths but I haven't been able to get rid of mine yet and I've had them a couple of years. Although I have only tried to defeat them by hoovering, (which can be a bit sporadic when it's behind cupboards/under beds and sofas etc).

Does this sound like what you have?

Yes MH it does sound like them. I was hoping hoovering would get rid of them but as mine can be sporadic too because getting behind furniture is not easy. Have they made more holes? (Oh and thanks very much for replying)

We had the same things as you MH - a whole patch of our carpet in a bit of the hall is wrecked as I didn't realise what it was until it was too late. Manic hoovering and putting mothballs down (as well as doing the mad 'killing moths dance whilst watching tv' every time I saw an adult one) seem to be keeping them at bay but our carpet looks very sad now...

ugh it's a nightmare - they can eat woolen clothes too so be VERY careful.

The house we moved into had them when we arrived.

4 years later they are still here and I don't own a single wooly jumper

Hoovering helps, you just have to ensure teh eggs (which look like little white speckles in a cobwebby gauze) never hatch into adults.

The youngvisitor I have just realised that when I moved my DD's dressing gown (hanging on her warddrobe doorknob) the other day it had a white gauzy web between the gown and the wardrobe. I thought it was just spiders or something. Shit - I can put up with the bloody things anywhere in the house but won't tolerate them in the DC's bedrooms. Will have to hoover the whole bloody room now and it only had new carpets put down in the summer.

And obviously wash the dressing gown. They were in my hallway curtain too so I know they get in fabrics. Arrrhggh - I hate them!

You can get these moth pheremone sticky strips that attract the adult moths (thereby hopefully denying them the chance to reproduce...). We have had terrible moth problems at home, but the pheremone strips really helped. Quite horrifying to see how many moths were caught. Bought them somewhere like Robery Dyas. Unfortuately our problem is so bad, we have had to spend a lot of £££ on getting Rentokil in and spray our whole flat w noxious chemicals (not v happy!), but I don't know how we would have got rid of them otherwise.

Orangina, I don't want to have to go down the chemical route. I have 2 DC's and 3 cats and am a bit paranoid about things like that. I know someone that bought some kind of powder that you sprinkle where you think the eggs are and it coats them and they cant breathe. Something like that anyway. I might see if I can get some of that. This person was a Kim & Aggie type though. Her house is spotless, so I would think they wouldn't last long there. Plenty of places for them to hide in my house though it being messy and full of crap small and full to bursting with stuff.

Try vinegar and water spray. We found them a couple of years ago along the wall under the window of front room. Hoovered first, took long curtains down and sent them to dry cleaners, took covers off sofa (they were behind there as well) washed and line dried. Think we did do a localised spraying with chemicals. Now, I hoover a lot more thoroughly and frequently in that area (we re-arranged furniture to make this possible). This summer I found more again, and sprayed with 50/50 water and white vinegar all over the carpet have only had the odd one since. Luckily we have managed to confine them to one room, they obviously don't like our cheap, synthetic hall carpet.

Thanks too MrsD. I'm going to try the 50/50. Wish we had room to rearrange the furniture can hardly move it to get behind as it is that's why this has happened I think.

You have to hoover in all crevices (skirting), move things like heavy furniture and do behind that. They like dark undisturbed places, so as one poster said behind things hanging around on doors, mirrors etc. We had a massive infestation when we moved in and its the larvae you have to try and get - too late in moth form. We did get rid of most of the original carpets here which were wool. I think ours came from birds nesting in the eaves, but that's another story!

Can I just ask if anyone had any success with this horrible problem?

Hoovering really thoroughly - they usually hide under furniture so move stuff with carpet under it and hoover regularly.

THEN you spray with moth killer stuff and generally keep doing this every time you see them flying about, maybe once a year with the spray.

Keep everything you don't use in vacuum bags (curtains, blankets etc) and try and cut down on the clutter.

If small items have evidence of moths, put in a bag in the freezer for 24 hours, it kills them off. (the moff - geddit) [hgrin]

Sorry I mean, spray the carpet particularly under these areas where it's dark.

Donh't spray the moths themselves. I do kill them though if I see them - just to stop them laying more eggs!

They won't touch nylon carpet, only wool. They love dust (ie laminate floors)
and hoover between floorboards as well if you have them.

They really like velvet so check any old curtains etc too.

Lots if hoovering, plus brushing with a good old fashioned carpet brush, and hoovering again.

Also you could try dusting difficult to reach areas with borax (don't do this in damp areas or anywhere pets/children can get at it).

Hi

I had a major infestation of carpet moths when I moved into this house. The place had be a mortgage repossession and empty for some months. Some of the furniture, chest of drawers, beds etc were left here and the moths were living in their thousands, inside the drawers and the once lovely 'House of Fraser' carpet was full of holes.

Once the furniture had been taken away, I hoovered like a mad thing (using an old hoover, not my good Dyson) in all the crevices and between gaps in the floorboards where possible. All the carpets had to be taken out, as were manky anyhow and I think maybe this did help somewhat. However the beasties did return and I had to drag furniture out. This was over three years ago, and the time they returned was well over a year back, but this week as we have been decorating one of the bedrooms, I noticed a couple of moths but not quite the same as the ones in the carpet...which tend to crawl about more on the floor...these were on some books which had been left to gather dust [as you do]! I now have cheapo carpets which are not wool so maybe that has helped too.

I was vacuuming my lovely rug (handed down from my Mum) and discovered that I had carpet moths. All of a sudden 2 skinny long moths just appeared out of nowhere. So promptly sucked them up and continued to do a thorough vacuum. I then thought ahhh moths do not like light or intense heat, so took the rug outside and hung it in the hot sun. Came back couple of hours later and there must have been about a dozen moths baked dead, sitting nearly 90 degrees to the rug. Plucked them off and did another vacuum. Will do this again over the coming days. Have also increased the natural light to this room to help prevent ideal conditions encouraging more infestations. I will also spray with Tee Tree oil and see if that helps. Always prefer the more natural approach before proceeding to anything toxic which also generally equates to more cost!!

I've heard Acclaim works, it's the house spray for fleas (but also kills every other bug in the vicinity) worth a try. Can buy online cheap enough.

I've just discovered what I thought were a few until I looked under my bed.
Needless to say the carpet's a gonna, but from what I can gather from reading up is...
Constantly hoovering but to add to the, no chemical route is by using a wallpaper steamer to use steam/heat to kill eggs and larvae (maggots). So...
Move a cupboard, hoover then steam.
Move a bed hoover then steam.
A few weeks of this, a pain definitely but just depends on how much you can afford a new carpet?