Moth Infestation Under Dining Room Table

13 years ago

I moved a heavy, antique table last night and found a moth infestation in the wool rug under the center of it, where, admittedly, it is rarely cleaned because I can't get to it. The rug was eaten away, there were live larvae, and larvae casings.

After vacuuming, I rolled the rug up and put it in the basement until such time as I can have it professionally cleaned, which I understand is expensive. Sigh.

Obviously, I'm freaked and grossed out. Yuck!! Has this ever happened to you, and what did you do? I'm worried about them having spread to other areas of the house, even though I looked and haven't seen any sign of them. I'd rather clean the rug myself. And I really don't think it would be good to put it back under the table - unless I could put some sort of preventative thing under there.

Any help appreciated. Thank you.

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Comments (7)

emma
13 years ago
You are worried about an infestation in your home and you kept the rug in the house????? If it were mine I would have had that thing as far from my house as I could.
betsyhac
Original Author
13 years ago
Why, thank you, Emma. Your condescending response is so intelligent, kind and helpful. What would you suggest I do with my expensive rug? Throw it in the trash?
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krissie55
13 years ago
There are moth sprays available.

Perhaps spraying the rug good and making sure all moths have been killed and then send to be professionally cleaned.

I do not know any way to do it yourself and get everything out of the rug. Cleaning by extraction will help pull the eggs and larvae out, etc.

Is this a wool rug? If so, it probably has been destroyed beyond salvaging.

Yes, moths (carpet beetles) will get into closets, in cracks and crevices of rooms and soon the whole house will be infested.

When we moved my M-I-L we found carpet beetles everywhere and the wool carpet was beyond keeping. A whole house extermination was required before putting the house on the market.

Needless to say we moved many carpet beetles to our house via M-I-L's possessions. Took quite a while to get rid of carpet beetles in our house. It is an ongoing battle, stick with it and you will win.

Carpet beetles will eat clothing in closets. Be sure and check all wool containing clothing to make sure they have not been nibbled on leaving little holes. Open every box, container, etc in your house to be sure they have not taken up residence there.

Fuller Brush moth cakes work great in closets and clothes do not stink when you wear them, unlike old fashion moth balls. Basil leaves work to a certain extent in the kitchen. Be sure and keep all flour, etc. in containers with tight fitting lids. Freeze everything you can for a week to kill moths, etc. I froze paper items, clothes, food, spices, dry goods, etc.

Hopefully they have not spread all over your house, but they have had a long time to travel before you noticed a problem.

Good luck.
jannie
13 years ago
Betsyshak, I certainly wouldn't throw out an expensive wool rug. Once you get moth the infestation gone, there are weavers who can fix the damage. Check your yellow pages or google .Good luck.
emma
13 years ago
I guess you want someone to agree with you. Krissie's reply is a more polite way of saying it. I can't imagine keeping it in the house. Facing a possible infestation versus getting rid of an expensive rug, no choice for me. The garage would be better especially if you rolled it up in plastic and sealed with tape, maybe they would have smothered.
cj47
13 years ago
What a nasty surprise! I'm sure you have removed all of the casings and larvae, and anything else you can see--my concern would be the things you can't see, possibly eggs. If there are any eggs left that begin to hatch, it only increases the risk of a whole house infestation. I'm not sure if you can spray it with anything without damaging what's left of the fibers--the directions on the spray might provide you with some info, as might Googling it on the internet. It may be expensive to get it cleaned professionally, but if you have any hope of salvaging it and avoiding infestation, that may well be it. In the meantime, I'd get it out of the house or at least wrap it well and seal in plastic, so that anything that hatches is contained. However, anything that hatches is going to continue munching on the rug, so I guess you pay your money and take your chances. I don't think this is a problem that can wait.

Best of luck to you,
Cj
nerdyshopper
13 years ago
I don't know if your expensive rug is one of the hand tied imports or a top line machine made carpet. We have an imported hand tufted carpet that we had cleaned when we had all the carpets in our house cleaned. The difference was that the cleaner used a gentle steam cleaning machine instead of the rotating one he used on the rest of our carpets. All the rooms in our 2000 square foot house except the kitchen and washroom are carpeted. The charge for the whole house was about $400. So I don't think it would be too expensive to clean unless you have a fine Persian or similar rug. Then it takes very special equipment and usually can't be done in the home. Ours was not one of those. Just machine made in India and hand tufted. Hope this helps.