Moths in My Rug?

Have you noticed moths flying around? What about bare patches on your beautiful area rug?You may have a carpet moth infestation.If you see this, you want to address it as soon as possible. They can cause a lot of damage within a short period of time. Let’s take a look at some Moth information 101.

What are they?

There are generally two types of moths that are seen, one is a Webbing moth. As adults they are a yellowish-brown color in appearance and approximately a half an inch long. There is also the Casemaking moth.The Casemaking moth is approximately the same size as the Webbing moth but is more of a brown color in appearance and has 3 dark spots on their wings.The adults are really just the sign that you have a problem. It is the larvae that are the real damage causers. The actually eat the wool in your beautiful rug. This can be especially problematic if the backing (or foundation) of your rug is also wool, they will even eat that! However, they may avoid any cotton foundations.Their life cycle can last from 2 months to 2 ½ years! They can produce up to 150 eggs and they hatch in an astounding 5 days! As you can imagine, this can go from 1 or 2 to a massive problem in a short time.They like undisturbed areas of rugs that may not be vacuumed as often and have little to no traffic on them. They are also highly attracted to pet hair, due to the keratin found in the core of pet hair.