Where They Actually Live in a Room

The rule

Three Conditions at Once

Larvae need keratin to eat, darkness to be comfortable in, and an absence of disturbance. Any place with all three is a candidate; anywhere missing one is not.

That is why the middle of a lived-in floor is almost never affected even when the edges are ruined - plenty of wool, but light and feet. And it is why the space under a wardrobe that has stood still since 2009 is the first place we look.

The floor

Edges, Under, and Beneath

• The perimeter - the pile against the skirting and over the gripper rod, all the way round every room. This is the commonest site by a distance.
• Under heavy furniture - sofa, bed, wardrobe, chest of drawers, bookcase, anything that has not moved in years.
• Under rugs, on the side against the floor - and under the furniture standing on the rug, which is two layers of undisturbed.
• Under the underlay in older properties, where an earlier wool underlay may still be in place.
• Stair edges and the back of each tread, where vacuuming is shallowest.
• Behind long curtains, where the hem rests on the carpet.

The wardrobe

Back Corners, Base, and the Shoulders of What Hangs

• The base of a fitted wardrobe, particularly any old carpet or felt lining it.
• The back corners, behind things that never get taken out.
• The shoulders and collars of coats and jackets hanging at the back.
• Folded knitwear at the bottom of a pile, in a drawer or on a shelf.
• Stored bedding, particularly wool blankets and feather pillows.
• Shoes and boots with sheepskin or felt linings.

The rest of the property

Where People Forget to Look

• Lofts and garages - stored woollens, rolled rugs, suitcases.
• Under fitted units and inside the plinth voids.
• Upholstered furniture, under the base cloth, where an older piece may be filled with horsehair.
• Old bird and wasp nests in a roof void or eaves - a genuine reservoir of feather, fur and debris, and the reason some upstairs problems keep coming back.
• Behind and beneath fixed seating in commercial premises, and along the perimeter of large floor plates.

What this means for a survey

If Nothing Moved, Nobody Looked

It follows directly that a survey which does not move furniture has not happened. We pull out what can be pulled out, lift rug corners and carpet edges where you are happy for us to, and empty enough of a wardrobe to see the corners of it.

It takes longer than glancing at a room and it is the difference between finding the source and treating the symptom. If a survey of your property took ten minutes and nothing was moved, it is fair to ask what was looked at.

Short answers

Carpet Moth Questions

Going further

Carpet Moth Guides