Carpet Moth Control in High Wycombe

Carpet Moth Control in High Wycombe

High Wycombe made furniture for a century and a half, and it still has an unusual amount of it moving about - house clearances, second-hand shops, auction lots, student lets being furnished and refurnished every summer.

Upholstered furniture is the most reliable way a carpet moth problem travels from one building to another, so a town with a lot of second-hand furniture in circulation sees more of it.

Furniture that moves

What Comes In With a Sofa

An upholstered chair or sofa is a sealed box from the moths’ point of view. Under the base cloth there is dark, still space; the filling in an older piece may be horsehair; the covering may be wool. Nobody vacuums inside it and nobody turns it over.

So a piece can carry live larvae for a year, be sold, and start a new problem in a house that had none. The same goes for a rolled rug from a clearance, a box of curtains, or a bag of coats.

What is inside it is larvae, which is why a piece can look perfectly clean on top and still be carrying the problem.

What to do about it is simple and nobody does it:

• Turn anything second-hand over and look at the base cloth and the seams before it comes indoors, in daylight if you can.
• Vacuum it thoroughly, including the underside, before it goes into a room.
• Keep it out of a carpeted room for a few days if you are unsure - a garage or a hall floor is easier to check.
• Small textiles can be frozen before they come in.

For landlords and letting agents with a summer turnover, the same applies at scale: the moment to check furniture is when it arrives, not when the next tenant complains.

Short answers

High Wycombe Questions

Going further

Carpet Moth Guides