What type of Moth eats your Wool rug in Victoria BC?

There are two main types of moths that eat wool. Here in Victoria, BC we see the Clothes Case Making Moth. These moths leave their larva casings behind after they have turned into an adult moth. The casings look like flat pieces of rice and can be the same colour as the rug depending on what colour of wool they were eating.

The other main type of wool eating moth is the Webbing Moth. I have never seen evidence of the webbing moth in Victoria before this week.

This week we had 3x5 wool area rug come in from Toronto, ON Canada. The owner lives in Victoria and had it flown out here. It would have been easy for me to over look the evidence of the webbing but because I did months of research into moths I knew what to look for.

On the back of this rug it looked like weird dirt, for lack of a better word. Here is what the webbing moth leaves behind as it eats a wool rug.


As much as we would like to not think about moths damaging our rugs, it does happen. Here are a few things that you can do to help prevent a moth attack on your wool area rugs.

 Thanks for reading, RugloverMary, your local rug cleaning expert, and moth hater in Victoria BC, Canada

Live Moth Larva

On Tuesday of this week, a wool hand tufted area rug came in for cleaning. The client told me that the rug had been stored for awhile.

When I hear that a dirty rug was stored I look for moth activity. I didn't find moth damage, I found something much more exciting.

I found live moth larva eating the rug!

I grabbed my little video camera and taped a great little video showing the little guys at work.

When I went to upload the video I ended up deleting it instead. Yup, I was smart. Since the rug was already in our moth treatment there was no way to re-do the video until next time I get a rug with live larva.

I was really excited to show you the larva because these guys had just hatched. Some of them were very small, smaller than the width of the wool fibers.

This little guy was the biggest one. He was close to cocooning, judging by his size.

I found at least 10 larva, but there were more I am sure.

Since it is really hard to find the eggs we must do our moth treatment to all rugs we find with evidence of moth activity. It takes just one male and female egg to hatch and you rug can be damaged.
Here is one of the smaller larva. When I started moving the fibers around with my pen, most of the larva disappeared.

Moth damage isn't usually caught in this early stage. It isn't until they have eaten a noticeable hole or a professional has pointed it out the empty larva casings.

When I unrolled the rug I had disturbed them and they started to move, it is easier to notice them, since dirt doesn't wiggle around.

I noticed the one first and after I found him, finding the smaller ones was easy after that.
There will be no noticeable damage to this rug because they were caught early.

I am glad that the client had mentioned that the rug was in stored. If he hadn't said anything and I forgot to ask, the unhatched eggs would probably have survived the cleaning and damage could have occurred.

How could the eggs survive the badgering and cleaning process?

The female moth attaches the eggs to the bottom of the wool fibers with a glue like fluid. This makes the eggs hard to remove by vibration and vacuuming. The eggs are very small, less than 1 mm in diameter, and up to one hundred can be laid by a single female moth.

Moth's do serious damage to wool area rugs that is why we will not clean an area rug if we find evidence of moth activity.

Remember to vacuum your entire area rug often and get it professionally cleaned at least once a year.

Thanks for reading, RugloverMary

Crazy weather

It was a very nice sunny warm day here in Victoria BC. It reached 25 degrees Celsius in the shop today and outside was 9 degrees Celsius.

I had to open the door to the shop because it got too warm. We have a west facing wall of four big windows and the sun shines through from 11 AM until sunset. It is suppose to be sunny and warm all week and into the weekend, but we will see.

I never trust the weather people. When I want to know what the weather is like I go outside. Much more effective then hoping the weather person is right. Plus they seem to always say it will be cloudy with sunny periods and slight possibility of showers. You can't be wrong when you cover all your bases.

Every Tuesday I come to work wondering what the day and week will have in store for me. Tuesday's are usually a busy phone call day with me returning messages left on the weekend and making reminder calls for clients to pick up their area rugs. Plus with all the calls we receive throughout the day.

The good thing about the sun shining is that people start to see how dirty their area rugs have gotten over the winter months. Since we didn't get a lot of rain this year we didn't get the mass of flooded rugs.

Saturday was a huge drop off the rug for cleaning day for us. We had a lot of larger (9x12) rugs and some are very dusty rugs. We had 2 cream coloured shags come in that were used as indoor bathrooms for their cats. They were too expensive for the clients to try and save. Unfortunately these rugs are just being replaced.

We had two British India's dropped off that we had to dispose of. They were 3x5 and had moth activity and pet urine odour. To clean, do our moth and odour treatments, was more than the client was willing to invest.

She didn't really want the rugs, so she wasn't that upset. If there was a sentimental value to them or they were a more valuable rug we would have gone ahead with the work.


Our clients appreciate our honesty when we tell them the cleaning expectations for their area rugs. If we know that we cannot exceed or meet our clients expectations we will let them know.

This is what waited for me on February 6th when I came into work. No big surprise that it was my birthday. I was 28, give or take a few years, hehe! A huge vase of 24 tulips and a big balloon!

My boss is great! I love tulips! They were on my coffee table until they exploded and I had to finally admit that they were dead. I still have the balloon tied to the vase in my bedroom.

When I got on the bus that night the bus driver opened the door and wished me a happy birthday! I do find it a bit embarrassing that people knew it was my birthday. I don't like to open gifts or have people sing Happy Birthday to me. I enjoy getting attention, but not the limelight.

Thanks for reading, RugloverMary

Moth Prevention

'Out of sight, out of mind' isn't good when it comes to your area rugs.
An area rug is an investment, and like any other investment, it needs to be take care of.
A few days ago Thea, from seattlerugcleaner.blogspot.com, also wrote a blog concerning moth damage and a few easy steps on how you can protect your investment from it's enemy.
I can hear you saying that your area rug isn't worth much so if it gets ruined oh well it can be replaced. Yes you are correct it can be replaced, but have you thought of the bigger picture?
The big picture being the cost of replacing the rug, the environmental impact, the hassle of finding the right size and colours?
A moth infestation can be easily deterred by a few housecleaning tips:

• Have your area rug professionally cleaned. Once a year in recommended.
• Vacuum the entire rug, especially areas under furniture. One a month is best.
• Rotate the area rug, this always helps the area rug wear evenly. Twice a year if possible.
• Get your air ducts cleaned once a year. Moths love undisturbed areas.
• Before storing your area rug get it professionally cleaned and properly wrapped for storage

• Check the back of the rug for moth larva activity. They can crawl underneath the edges and eat the wool from the back without showing any damage from the front
  Clean all woolen articles before storing them

The larva, which is what eats your area rug, are small worm like and hard to see.
This one appeared after I moved the wool he was eating. After I took the picture he disappeared back into the rug, I guess he was a little camera shy.
Moth larva casings look like flattened pieces of rice usually in the colour of the rug.
If you do find that your area rug has become a moth buffet bring it in to Luv-A-Rug.
We can do our safe, non-toxic moth treatment to eliminate the moth eggs and larva.
To learn more about moths and how to prevent moth damage to your area rugs visit www.squidoo.com/mothprevention and www.luvarug.com

Thanks for reading, RugloverMary

Ringing on Moth's door

What a week this has been. I have been sick all week and yesterday was the worst day or as I call it look like death day. I had a fuzzy brain and did as little as possible. My thought for yesterday was 'Bring in a rug, take home a bug (cold bug that is).' I am grateful that it wasn't busy. This is an example of how my brain didn't work yesterday...I had a rug dropped off by our delivery guy and it laid out on the floor for a good twenty minutes with me staring at it. I could not ID the rug. I knew what it wasn't, but couldn't remember what it was.
It came to me after I got home and I feel really stupid because it is my all time favorite type of wool rug: a Gabbeh! Yeah! so my brain cells were not working yesterday and after an amazing opening season hockey game between Vancouver Canucks(6) and Calgary Flames(0) and a semi good nights sleep I am feeling and looking much better. It was pretty good to walk into work and have my co-worker, who is a Chicago Blackhawks fan, give me a weak good morning because he knew that my team kicked butt and it put me ahead in our hockey pool, at least for today. Just a side note Detroit, the Stanley Cup Winners, lost to the assumed worst team, Toronto. It is a whole new season, gotta love it!!!!
Now onto today's topic now that I've gotten hockey out of the way.
Last week we had two orders of rugs come in with moth damage/activity one was 10 rugs and the other was 3 rugs. The ten rugs had a lot of empty moth larva casings and with the three rugs two of them had live little larvae. Yes it got me excited, I cannot identify my favorite rug, but live moth larvae makes me happy. For Luv-A-Rug to clean and do our moth larvae treatment it can quickly add up so I am going to write about how to prevent moths from loving your rugs.
As we all know when moving from place to place you just want things to get done as quickly as possible and sometimes things get put in the out of sight out of mind area. When it comes to area rugs they should be professionally cleaned and wrapped properly for storage. There is a bit of a debate in the area rug cleaning community as to what is the best way to store area rugs. I will obviously write what Luv-A-Rug suggests and does when it comes to area rug storage.
We like to wrap area rugs in Tyvek, that is what construction workers use to wrap houses in. It is breathable and moisture proof, under normal conditions. Tyvek is combustible at 400 degrees Fahrenheit, so keep away from open flame and all sources of ignition.

When storing an area rug after it has been properly cleaned and wrapped it should never go up against an outer wall or lay flat on a cement floor. These areas can be cold and wet which are not good for your area rugs. The best place to store area rugs is a cool, dry room with low humidity. When unwrapping an area rug that has been stored, it is best to do in a well ventilated area or outside to let the moth ball gas air out. If the moth ball smell lingers bring it into Luv-A-Rug and we can remove it for you.

We all know the saying, 'An ounce of prevent is worth a pound of cure' and that is true when it comes to area rug storage. Another tip is to vacuum the entire area rug if it is under furniture. Moths love dry, warm , undisturbed areas and under a sofa or china cabinet is prime real estate. Also look on the under side of the area rug about 6-8 inches in, moths will crawl under the edges and lay their eggs on the bottom of the fibers. The moth larvae eat the wool loops on the back and the moth damage isn't visible on the front of the rug until it is too late and the moth larvae have eaten a large section of the area rug away. Moth's are sneaky and it only takes one pregnant moth to cause lots of costly trouble.
Thanks for reading, RugloverMary