Posted October 21, 2020 by Sarah Malone
Category: Advice

Finding something eating your carpet is never a nice thing and it can be hard to identify what exactly is destroying your rug.

Different insects or bugs love to take up home in your carpet, upholstery and rugs, they love hiding in the soft fibres and they find the wool a buffet of food to eat.

These are three of the most commonly found pest that like carpet and what signs to look for to check if they are infesting your home.

Carpet Moths

The carpet moth also known as the clothes moth and webbing clothes moth. The brown / beige adults are around 14-18mm and only have a small wing span. They like to find a dark quiet area to lay their eggs and generally you don’t notice the moths until after the damage has started.

A single female can lay around 100-150 eggs which will then can hatch five days later. It is then in this larvae form that they cause the most damage. The small larvae will eat the wool, fibres, pollen, hair and other natural fibres in found your carpet.

How to tell if I have Carpet Moths:

• Loose carpet fibres where the carpet is now damaged and the knots have been eaten away.
• Larvae caterpillars found under the rug.
• Small cocoons which normally blend in with the wool
• Moths flying around the room.

Carpet Beetles

Carpet beetles are a shiny dark brown-black beetle with an oval body around 0.3-0.4cm.  Their wings can vary with different white, brown and dark yellow patterns.

The Adult beetle prefers to eat pollen and nectar and doesn’t normally eat the carpet however they will still lay their eggs and once their larvae hatch, they will eat pretty much every everything from your woollen rug, to your socks, to your dried plants.

How to tell if I have Carpet beetles:

• Skin sheets and faecal pallets around the carpet.
• Adult beetles around the windows, skirtings and edges
• Holes in the carpet flooring and fabrics
• Larvae visible in the carpet
• Small Cocoons under the carpet and rugs

Again, like the carpet Moth, these beetles like dark hidden spots so you will probably notice the damage before you see the larvae. 

Silverfish

A Silverfish is around 12-19 mm with a long teardrop shaped body and a sleek blue-silver or brownish grey colour with three bristles at the rear.

Silverfish like to eat carbohydrates such as starch and dextrin which are more commonly found in household items like glue, clothing, dandruff and book bindings. However, if they cannot find their preferred food source, they will also eat linen, silks and synthetic fibres in the carpet.

How to tell if I have Silverfish:

• Holes in your clothing, wallpaper and carpets
• Yellow staining around these holes
• Faecal droppings normally found around the corners – They look like black pepper.
• Fully grown adults can also be found in and around food packaging.

Silverfish also are more active during the night however can be seen during the day if the infestation is large enough.