Cleankill Pest Control Director Ian Miller was visiting a premises in South Kensington, Central London, with a reported fly problem which he quickly identified as fruit flies originating from a dirty bin.
He decided to survey the rest of the premises and noticed some evidence of moths in the basement where a jacket was hanging on a coat stand. There were several tell-tale holes in the arm jacket of the jacket. After further investigation he found a heavily infested old rug that was being stored in a cupboard. The rug was so badly damaged that it was falling apart.
Ian explained: “Moth larvae love natural fibres and had clearly been feasting on the carpet for many months completely unnoticed and undisturbed. It was really threadbare and ready to fall apart. There were literally thousands of live moths crawling over the carpet. Textile moths don’t fly that much and mostly walk around, so they don’t make themselves very obvious – that’s why they went unnoticed.”
Ian recommended the rapid removal of the rug and an application of insecticide to the ground floor of the premises to eliminate the infestation. So it turned out that flies were the least of the problems in the premises. If the moths hadn’t been spotted by Ian they could have spread throughout the building and destroyed all of the carpets. There was also the risk of staff transporting the moths home on their belongings.
Ian added: “The lesson from this infestation is not to simply put items in a cupboard and forget about them. Make sure you have regular clear outs to make sure any pests are discovered and disturbed before they take hold.”