Second-Hand Rugs, Furniture and Storage

The main routes

What Actually Brings Them In

In rough order of how often we find it:

• A second-hand rug. Rolled, stored, sold, and unrolled into a warm house.
• Second-hand upholstered furniture. The space under the base cloth is dark, still, and sometimes filled with horsehair.
• Inherited or stored textiles. A house clearance, a relative’s loft, a storage unit, a box that has been in the garage since a previous move.
• Clothing. Vintage, charity shop, or a coat that has spent a year somewhere else.
• An old bird or wasp nest in a roof void. The one route that is not carried in, and a real one.

What is conspicuously not on that list is "from next door". Adults are weak fliers with a fortnight to live and no reason to leave a food supply.

Checking before it comes in

Five Minutes in Daylight

For a rug: unroll it outside or in a garage, look at the back and the fringe, part the pile in several places, and look for grazed patches, silk webbing, frass and cases. Run your hand over the back - thin spots are obvious by feel.

For upholstered furniture: turn it over. The base cloth is where you will see it - small holes in the fabric, cases stuck to it, frass when you tap it over a sheet of paper. Check the seams, the underside of cushions and anywhere the covering is wool.

For clothing and soft goods: shoulders, collars, cuffs, folds, and the bottom of the pile.

None of this needs equipment. It needs daylight and five minutes.

If you are not sure

Freeze It, Clean It, or Keep It Out

Freezing kills every stage in a small item. Seal it in a bag so it does not get damp on the way out, and give it several days in a domestic freezer.

Cleaning - a proper wash or dry-clean - deals with garments and removes the soiling that attracts them in the first place.

Quarantine is the simple one. Keep a suspect item off carpet for a week or two - a garage, a hall with a hard floor, a sealed bag - and check it again. If something emerges, it emerges somewhere that does not matter.

A large or valuable rug is a specialist clean rather than a freezer. Say so and we will tell you what is realistic.

Storage

How to Put Wool Away So It Survives

• Clean it first. What attracts them is the soiling as much as the fibre.
• Seal it properly. A rigid box with a lid, or a vacuum bag. A zipped fabric suit carrier is not a seal.
• Do not use a cardboard box for anything valuable - it is neither sealed nor clean.
• Check it when it goes in and when it comes out. Two looks a year finds nearly everything.
• Do not rely on cedar or lavender to do the sealing for you. More on that in the deterrents article.

Short answers

Carpet Moth Questions

Going further

Carpet Moth Guides