Online with some guys the other night, and moths hatching and damaging rugs was brought up. To get family down for bed I had to leave the discussion, and when I came back they'd finished up. What, aside from cleaning, can be done? I seem to remember someone mentioning a preventative of some sort. Can anyone help me out?
Many factory made rugs have some sort of moth protection, so it is not something that must be done to every rug. These are factors that help prevent infestation - Keep the rug clean. The insects are attracted to food. Also cleaning flushes out moth eggs. Keep the rug exposed to fresh air and sunlight. Dirty rugs and rugs rolled up in storage are more likely to attract moths than rugs that re in use. If a moth prevention treatment is desired, use Zinc silicafluoride or magnesium silicafluoride. Chemspec used to make a product called Wool Treat, but I don't think it is still produced. Master Blend has good product. I think the name is Repel.
Joe. I have always noted that moth larvae infestations are more prevalent in the late spring, however this of coarse is the time more ppl are paying more attention to their rugs with spring cleaning. Perhaps this is the real reason why we see most of the moth damaged rugs this time of year. My office manager RugLover Mary has blogged about moths a lot. Here is a link to her blog, and you can search it for more moth blogs as well. enjoy. http://ruglovermary.blogspot.com/#uds-search-results oh, and here is a video she did that show you or clients how to reconize early moth damage. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIFaWTSBdN0
Hello. A few thoughts on Moths. I started getting reports of Moth infestations out of the Persian Gulf in early May indicating egg laying in April. Long term data on New York City says Moths lay eggs in late May Early June. Add to that reports from further north that they seemed to get hit a little later. My theory is that egg laying is affected by temperature combined with the natural moth cycle. Eggs can start hatching shortly after they are laid and begin to feed on wool immediately. Most people cite the Clothes moth as the same as the Carpet Moth. They are actually a different but similar species. Once laid the eggs do not always hatch and if hatched they do not always start to feed until conditions are right. Still the bulk of the eggs have hatched in North America. Best wishes, Barry O’Connell
all i can say is to clean the area rug regularly and Keep your area rug subjected to outdoors as well as sunshine
Scott Warrington is one of the most knowledgeable people in the business and I agree with his comments. I also look forward to seeing him Feb 10 – 12 for the DC Rug Tour. Chemspec did stop making the moth treatment. I checked a few weeks ago. My understanding is that they still sell it in the UK and Europe. For rug products usually my first choice is ChemMax or Bridgepoint but my understanding is that Masterblend’s Repel is the only moth treatment left in the US market. Repel uses magnesium silicafluoride and a treatment makes it inedible to moths for 3 years. I would recommend offering it as an up-sell on every washing. Moth egg laying time is temperature and climate affected. Moths lay eggs in late May in the New York City area. So if you are warmer which I suspect you are it may be early to mid May. Canada seems to get hit in June. Eggs do not automatically hatch and are affected by the stuff Scott described. I know of a case where a rug was fine until they rolled it up to put up the Christmas tree and the moths hatched while it was stored in the dark basement. Dirty rugs should never be stored. Repel is not to kill moths so you need another way. Microban® Formula X-590 is the popular chemical approach. Freezing is popular but you need to get the rug to -3 F overnight. That take a serious freezer so if your freezer won’t hold -3 you can play games that I do not want to get into here. Heat is another way. Heated drying rooms should kill if you can hold the temperature over 120 for a few hours. I can’t find anything I wrote on moths which is a surprise so I will gather together something comprehensive by next spring. If you have any specific questions feel free to ask. Do you think there would be any interest in moth and insect course from the ICR with a minor certification? We could create a MPS (Moth and pest Specialist. If anyone likes the idea I will talk to Paul, maybe we could do it as an on-line course. Barry O’Connell http://www.SpongoBongo.com
Be cautious of making claims to kill insects. That may make you a pest control service in many states. If you don't have the proper training and permits for pest control, you could face fines or other penalties. Cleaning to remove moth eggs is OK as I understand the regulations.
Good points Scott, If you apply Microban to a rug to kill moths you need a license in most or maybe all states. However if you wash a rug with Microban to remove larvae and or eggs then it is legal as I understand it. I am not a lawyer. Years back I knew a man charged with a host of fraud related charges. It finally came down to the DA asking his bookkeeper if it was Mr. X’s intent to defraud or was he just plain stupid. When she said “Stupid” they droped all the charges. With many things it is your intent that decides the legality of something. So washing the moths away is legal even if they end up dead. But killing the moths deliberately may be illegal. If I washed enough moth rugs I would get the exterminators license. But in the mean time I would “wash” the moth problems and never advertise killing them. Best wishes, Barry http://www.SpongoBongo.com
