How To Keep Bugs Away From Your Rug

If you suspect that there might be some bugs on your gorgeous rug, you need to act immediately. While creepy critters of all kinds roam around your home, some of them tend to fixate on the carpeting, and they’re not good news. If you notice some signs of damage or see them crawling about, you might have an infestation on your hands. Don’t fret, there are plenty of solutions available that can help you get rid of them and keep your carpet safe. Here’s what you should do to keep these household pests away.

Recognize the common culprits

Before you can start getting rid of bugs, you have to figure out what you’re dealing with. There are a few insects that call our carpets their homes – moths and carpet beetles. The former seems like an unusual suspect, as we tend to see moths fluttering about our lights and not spending much time on the ground. However, it’s not the adult ones that ruin carpeting, but rather their larvae. The adult moths lay their eggs in a carpet, and the larvae start munching away at the fibres, ruining the material.

David Short from Windsor, UK, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Carpet beetles, despite spending plenty of time on the ground, don’t fancy carpets all that much—but their young ones do! As is the case with the moth’s young, carpet beetle grubs spend a significant portion of their lives in carpeting, which they also consume.

Notice the signs

Common sense would suggest that you’d notice these types of pests on your rug, but they’re not exactly easy to spot. You could go months without seeing a single critter, only to find that your rug’s been chewed through eventually. The warning signs are there, but you need to know where to look.

When it comes to moth larvae, it can take a while to notice the extent of their damage to the rug. They tend to inhabit areas of your rug that are away from light sources. If a piece of the carpet or rug is under furniture or in a dark corner, this is where you’ll find the moth larvae. You can recognize their damage through small patches of worn fibre. If the problem persists, the larvae eat through multiple layers of the rug, leaving noticeable traces.

Forest & Kim Starr, CC BY 3.0 US, via Wikimedia Commons

Carpet beetle grubs prefer the edges of carpets. If this area shows signs of wear and tear, you can be sure that they’re to blame.

Do a thorough cleaning

Once you’ve noticed one of these pests in your carpet, you’ll obviously want to get rid of them as soon as possible. Your first move should be to grab the vacuum cleaner. Attach a suitable nozzle and start going at the whole carpet. Focus on the areas that show signs of infestation and go through it multiple times.

Afterwards, you’ll want to apply some residual insecticide. It’s likely that the moths and beetles will return after you’ve vacuumed and produce more young, which is why the insecticide is always recommended. However, subsequent vacuuming will get rid of the residue, so you’ll eventually have the same problem.

Your best bet for getting rid of these pests would be to contact a pest control service that specializes in infestations. Professionals will know how to identify the problematic areas and take care of them in the long term.

Minimize the risk of pests

Carpet-destroying bug infestations aren’t too commonplace. They necessitate certain conditions in which these bugs thrive. Getting rid of these conditions can reduce the risk of these bugs infesting your carpeting.

For starters, you’ll want to rotate any carpets or rugs that you have from time to time. The more light they receive, the less likely it is that they’ll be infested. You should also vacuum and clean carpets as often as possible. Focus on the areas that often have moths and grubs present. Don’t leave any rugs unattended in storage for too long, as they’re sure to be infested the longer they stay there.

Conclusion

While certain bugs are detrimental to your carpets and rugs, they’re not too difficult to get rid of. With proper cleaning and some assistance from pest control, you can take care of the problem in no time. Afterwards, all you have to do is keep things tidy, and you won’t have to worry about bugs munching away at your carpet ever again.