Fighting moths

The beige wool carpet in my (adult) son's room has been thoroughly chewed by moths, working in the quiet darkness of a place where furniture isn't regularly moved to let the hoover in. Moths thrive in dark, undisturbed places ... and there are a number of those in the room. It's his responsibility, really, but after seeing a grand flutter of wings when I had to go in there one day, I decided that action couldn't wait.

He moved the furniture into the small amount of clear space, and then kept moving it at appropriate intervals; throughout the day I used his workshop hoover, and the smallest nozzle, to go over every inch of the carpet, edge to edge. "You can do anything for 15 minutes" - again and again - do an area, spray it with a magic elixir, then go do something pleasant while it dries. Repeat throughout the day, as fresh areas of carpet become available.

And, as mothers do, I did a bit of dusting in the room ... though while I was shaking the duster out the window, the morning's fresh breeze whipped the yellow cloth out of my hand and sent it blowing down the street. It's probably caught in some tree round the corner. Replacement dusters come in packs of four, but I find that one lasts for many years, with considerate usage.

On top of the beige wool carpet lay a persian rug, a present to myself when I moved into the flat 20 years ago. It now has some areas of moth damage -

Hoovering from the back showed up the bald patches, and I've applied Fray-Check in hopes of holding the tufts in place, but they may well disappear up the nozzle the next time this rug is hoovered from the front. It's been sprayed too. Everything is getting sprayed - in hopes that this elixir really does do what it says on the tin - but also among the small print is an instruction to repeat the treatment within a month if possible.

That's up to the room's usual inhabitant. He's now aware that it takes only moments to move the furniture, so a bit of carpet spraying shouldn't take much longer.

And perhaps he'll undertake rotation of woolen items through the freezer - which is the best (the only?) way of keeping a check on the moths in clothes ... they certainly do love cashmere, don't you find?