Do Wool Carpets Attract Bugs?

Do wool carpets attract bugs? Unfortunately, yes! Bugs such as carpet beetles, silverfish, termites, and others love feasting on wool carpets. In most cases, you and the people in your household welcome the bugs when you spill food items into the wool fibers and forget to clean them immediately after having meals. Wool carpets are made to last between 25 and 50 years when properly cared for. Unfortunately, a little slip-up and bugs will attack and desecrate the carpet wholly in less than two years! Today, I’ll take a closer look at why bugs are so destructive to wool carpets and how to keep bugs away.

Contents

• Do wool rugs attract bugs?
• How do you keep bugs out of wool carpets?
• Why do bugs like wool?
• Do carpets attract bugs?
• How do I know if my carpet has bugs?

Do Wool Carpets Attract Bugs?

Wool carpets and wool rugs are susceptible to bugs such as clothes moths, carpet beetles, and silverfish bugs. It can be pretty alarming to hear that bugs are attracted to wool carpets if you’ve got them in your home. But, wool carpets aren’t a guarantee that you’ll get these bugs.

The different potential bugs that are attracted to wool carpets thrive in different conditions. So, let’s take a closer look at each one, including how destructive each bug is to your wool carpet.

Clothes Moths

Extensive damage is caused by clothes moth larvae. The larvae (white) bore holes through the woolen fabric. They are notorious and feed on mixtures of natural and synthetic fibers.

Unlike other moths, clothes moths avoid light and mostly eat the wool carpet areas in dark spaces. They will eat chunks of your rug underneath tables, sofas, and in dark corners.

Carpet Beetles

Carpet beetle larvae are disastrous to woolen and blends of synthetic and natural fiber carpets. This 4mm, rounded insect is dark gray in color with splashes of white bands across its body. Carpet beetles are attracted to light. The insect will feed on any part of the wool carpet, exposed to light and in dark places such as underneath furnishings.

Silverfish Bugs

These nocturnal bugs can wreak havoc on wool carpets and other things made from natural fibers. Silverfish bugs thrive in dark, cool places. They seek out moisture and will live and breed in sinks and bathtubs, coming out to feed on the woolen carpets around these areas. The carrot-shaped 1cm adult bug can survive months without food, waiting for you to slack on cleaning your rugs!

The most damage from these insects on your wool carpets will mostly be behind and underneath furnishings. These places are usually hard to clean when vacuuming and serve as the best breeding grounds for said bugs.

How Do You Keep Bugs Out Of Wool Carpets?

For short-term bug elimination, you can use commercially available surface-spray cans. They will effectively keep infestations at near-zero capacity for four weeks after spraying. The bug spray is effective in tiny crevices and cracks formed by floor tiles, shelves or loose moldings.

You can spread woolen rugs outside during the summer months and apply wettable insecticidal powders for up to three months of residual control. Repeat this process at summer ends to keep the pests at bay during the winter months.

Good housekeeping is the most important way to prevent a bug infestation on your woolen carpets. Vacuum often underneath and behind furnishings to remove any lint, dust, hairs and food particles that attract bugs. But, bear in mind that bugs aren’t just attracted to woolen carpets. You should clean and care for other woolen items with the same dedication.

Woolen clothes such as blankets, clothing and furs should be cleaned thoroughly. Store them in tightly sealed plastic bags when not in use. Use pest strips, camphor, or mothballs in dark spaces such as wardrobes and linen cupboards. Wash and dry-clean your wool clothing in spring before putting them away. Avoid cleaning them during the fall season when they are ready for use.

Why Do Bugs Like Wool?

Bugs love wool because wool is made from proteins created from animal cells. Many bugs, including carpet beetles, silverfish and carpet moths, reverse engineer these proteins and use them as food to continue their survival. Further, carpet moths feed on wool, fur, and other natural fibers to consume the keratin within. Keratin helps female clothes moths have enough energy to form eggs.

Do Carpets Attract Bugs?

Carpets are textile products made from natural and synthetic fibers. Bugs are attracted to the natural fibers in woolen carpets, but also to the food and debris that we leave in them or take too long to clean up. Walking over woolen carpets in dirty shoes, spilling food and shedding on them constantly without cleaning them often creates a favorable ground for a bug infestation. Stains such as urine from pets soak into the carpet and thus attract bugs!

How Do I Know if My Rug Has Bugs?

To find out whether your woolen rug has bugs, you should check its underside, or look into the deeper woolen fibers. Incase of an infestation, there will be casing on the carpet. This is the stage immediately before the larvae hatches and starts eating the carpet.

The larvae appear as spider webs or sticky lint stuck on the rug. When you ignore this, the bugs will hatch and start eating away at your rug. When you find bare spots where the wool is missing and in some instances, you will find holes where the bugs eat away all the wool!

Do Wool Carpets Attract Bugs?

Wool carpets attract bugs if they are not properly taken care of. Food spillage, pet pee, and human and animal shedding on woolen carpets are an invitation to carpet beetles, carpet moths and silverfish bugs to invade and eat your wool carpet. These bugs mostly eat the areas of the carpet under furnishings and away from any lighting. When you start noticing patches or holes in your wool carpet, it’s time you start conducting weekly or bi-monthly deep cleaning sessions.

You can use commercial bug sprays during summer and the end of summer to kill the bugs. Preferably, you should be vacuuming your rugs twice or more weekly to dispose of and neutralize all the bug eggs and larvae. Take advantage of the sun and spread your woolen rugs in the sun to naturally kill any and all eggs and larvae that thrive in moist and dark places inside. Also, good housekeeping will keep all bugs away. Clean and air all the dark spots in your house to get rid of all bugs!

Get To Know Your Wool Carpet

• Is it easy to stain a wool carpet?
• Should wool be warmer than nylon carpet?
• Is it worth paying more for a wool carpet?
• What makes wool carpets shrink?
• How to clean a smelly wool rug

References

• Emery, R. (et al). ‘Identifying and Controlling Clothes Moths, Carpet Beetles, and Silverfish.’ Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (2022)
• Cranshaw, W. ‘Home & Garden.’ Colorado State University