How to get rid of moths in carpet

Are carpet moths chomping their way through your carpet? If so, it’s time to look at how to get rid of moths in carpet and sort out your pest problem once and for all.

The easier way to book quality trades

Download app

In this guide, we’ll cover the common signs of carpet moth damage as well as the best ways to get rid of carpet moths in your home quickly and effectively.

How do carpet moths get in your house?

Despite being an insect that naturally lives outdoors, carpet moths can often find their way into homes and start causing havoc with your soft furnishings.

Carpet moths are naturally drawn to any material that’s rich in keratin, such as carpets, rugs and other similar natural materials. In fact, it’s not actually the moths that are eating their way through your carpets and upholstery – it’s their larvae that are feasting on the fibres.

There are a number of ways in which carpet moths or their larvae can get into your house, including:

Being carried in on your shoes
Picked up by pets, such as dogs and cats
Second hand fabric furniture or rugs – especially antiques

Once the larvae are in your home and they discover your carpets and other natural materials, they’ll start to eat their way through them – which you’ll soon start to notice.

Common signs of carpet moth damage

Here are some of the tell-tale signs that you might have a carpet moth infestation in your home:

Threadbare patches on rugs and carpets – Patches are typically the most common signs of carpet moths that homeowners first notice. You’ll often see small patches of carpet that have been eaten away in dark, humid parts of your home, behind furniture and along skirting boards
Larvae cases on the floor – Another sign of a carpet moth problem is when you see the larvae cases on the carpet, typically around the edges of the room. A female carpet moth can lay up to 100 eggs at a time and those eggs look like grains of rice. Once the eggs hatch, the larvae cases are left behind and it’s those empty shells that you might see along your skirting boards and in the corners of rooms
Seeing carpet moths themselves – A carpet moth is typically around 5mm long and rarely flies, instead, they usually crawl and hop at floor level
Damage to other natural materials in your home – Although they do like to dine on carpet fibres, carpet moths will also eat their way through other natural materials, such as blankets, pillows, upholstered furniture, and other soft furnishings

How do I get rid of carpet moths?

If you’ve discovered moths eating carpet in your home, there are various ways to tackle the problem. Here are some of the most popular ways to get rid of carpet moths:

1. Vacuum your carpets regularly

One of the easiest ways to start getting rid of carpet moths is to regularly vacuum all rooms in your home. If you can use a vacuum cleaner with strong suction, you’ll be able to remove the moth eggs and larvae from your carpet.

Just make sure you vacuum thoroughly, covering all areas of the floor, including along skirting boards, under furniture, and any hard-to-reach areas.

2. Use insecticide sprays

In addition to vacuuming your home, you might also want to use insecticides to kill carpet moth larvae – as you might not get rid of them all with vacuuming alone.

When using insecticide products, make sure you follow the manufacturer’s instructions carefully and wear protective clothing when applying the treatment, and keep animals and children away from treated areas.

For heavy infestations, you may need to use an insecticide treatment more than once.

See the tradespeople we've checked and recommend for your job

3. Use glue strips and carpet moth traps

There are a number of different papers, traps and strips that you can use to stop further carpet moth damage. Most of them use pheromones to attract the moths and glue to trap them.

By trapping the adult moths, you stop them from laying more eggs and breaking the carpet moth’s breeding cycle.

4. Keep your carpets clear of clutter

Carpet moths tend to like living and laying their eggs in darker, humid areas of carpets. By regularly moving furniture and keeping your carpets clear of clutter, you’ll quickly notice if a carpet moth problem arises – and you’ll be able to treat it before it becomes a major infestation.

5. Choose man-made carpets with mothproofing

Carpets that are made from man-made fibres are naturally moth-proof because they don’t contain the natural keratin that carpet moths are looking to eat.

Most manufacturers will now apply mothproofing treatment to all their natural carpets. However, if you already have carpets made of natural materials, such as wool, then make sure you get them treated with a mothproofing product as soon as you can.

Professional carpet moth treatment

The single most effective way to stop moths from eating the carpet in your home and get rid of carpet moths for good is to hire a professional for carpet moth treatment.

An experienced local pest control service will have the right knowledge, tools and treatment products to quickly and effectively get rid of carpet moths in your home.

Want to know how much it might cost? Check out our guide to pest control costs.

See the tradespeople we've checked and recommend for your job

Share this article: