Case Bearing Carpet / Clothes Moth - Tinea pellionella

If you see what look like grains of rice on your carpet they may well be the Case Bearing Moth. The female has laid eggs, she chooses shady areas behind heavy rarely moved furniture, the caterpillars have hatched, they spin a cocoon of silk and the fibres of the food source, here green variegated carpet. You need to do more than the average vacuum cleaning and give the whole room / house a detailed clean from top to bottom to prevent an infestation. Neglect it and all wool fur and natural fibres in carpets and clothes will be eaten.
As can be seen they retreat into the case when disturbed by light or vibration and can appear dead and harmless.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• moth
• case
• bearing
• caterpillar
• clothes
• carpet
• pest

[swradioactive]

Good luck, its hard work tracking all the little horrors.

[GodFromTheMachineXD]

OMG, I bought one of those Bob Marley hat from Jamaica 19 months ago went . it was stored on the shelf in the closet. Kids asked to use it for Halloween so when I went to find it, I found these grits in the hat and those cocoon that has those worms crawl out just like your pictures, thank you for posting these, I thought they were fleas of some sort. So gross, there were hundred of them, how did they eggs survived for so long.

[swradioactive]

@GodFromTheMachineXD Interesting question, how did the eggs survive. I am not an expert but I guess with hundreds of larvae when you discovered them, there had been a full life cycle involved, so a few eggs initially hatched, larvae ate the hat, pupated, moths mated then laid hundreds of eggs for the next generation. Any human hair in the hat would have provide food as well as wool, a good idea would to burn it on Nov5 :-)

[stuartthegrant]

Goodness do these live in the UK?

[swradioactive]

@stuartthegrant Yep, they are apparently not as common in the UK as the other clothes moth.These got established whilst we were away from home, they climb to pupate so the clean up has to go into and behind furniture, curtains and fittings ceilings and light fittings etc. We have followed up with a spray of Deltmethrin. I will report on the success later.

[swradioactive]

@swradioactive That should read Deltamethrin.

Day 5 inch by inch search revealed one caterpillar that had climbed to the ceiling to pupate. Day 6 onwards no signs.

Case clothed [sic] we hope.

[guitarguy141]

@GodFromTheMachineXD my brother bought me the same dread hat from Mexico....there all over my room now...started cleaning today...found three days ago

[guitarguy141]

currently cleaning these out of my room....so glad we have hardwood floors

[Footrockofdoom]

I remember when i first found one of these in my room dragging itself up the wall by its face. I honestly to god thought i had discovered a new species, the internet has all the answers! Ive thrown at least 5 of these out of my window already, and its cold outside, they can enjoy freezing whatever end of them is the ass off...

[LaurelVentura]

An unpleasant but certainly informative video. I am sadly familiar with these little beasts myself.

[GamingandSocialfun]

I just found those in my room man Im glad i can find out what it is

[Solid5050]

I woke up one morning to find one of these crawling by my pillow. I was proper freaked out, we had loads of these little things under our bed and didn't have a clue what they were, thank you so much for uploading your video