This is the time of year when carpet moths show up in your home looking to snack on Oriental and Persian rugs. We are not the only ones who like the longer days, warm temperatures, and sunny weather.  Moths love warm conditions and this is the season to be especially vigilant with respect to our woolen goods, including our cherished wool rugs and kilims.  These moths are tiny things, hardly noticable as they flutter about. Tineola Bisselliella, they’re called.

Carpet moths rarely cause trouble to rugs that are regularly walked on and vacuumed, so try to keep them as clean as possible and vacuum once a week. On the other hand, they gravitate to dark, undisturbed places where they can eat in peace and often they cause really serious damage. They prefer rugs stored in places like basements and closets, but they will settle for Oriental rugs under sofas or beds or where rugs abut walls and are neither vacuumed or walked on and rarely disturbed. Often they chew away at the backs of rugs rather than their fronts. Strangely, the carpet moth seems to prefer dirty rugs, often avoiding clean rugs.

Be careful with moths.  They will literally eat your woolen goods, as wool is protein, and moths just love it.  And although repairing and/or restoring a moth damaged wool kilim rug, dhurrie, or kilim is always possible (we offer reweaving services for this type of damage), the best route would be not to have them damaged at all.  Some steps you can take:  never store woolen goods in plastic, dark, humid, or enclosed spaces; inspect your wool rugs and kilims periodically; expose your wool rug or kilim to the sun; keep wool kilims or rugs in well ventilated areas; never place wool rugs or kilims in areas known to be infested with moths.

If you do happen to have a moth infestation, call us immediately so we can first get the infested carpets deep cleaned to remove all moths and larvae. We can then offer our moth proofing service, which a bittorent that makes the wool taste bad to moths. So no matter what situation you are having with moths and your rugs, Rug Ideas is here to help. 

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”.