Question: We have a customer who works for a pest control company. He is going to one of his customer’s 28,000 ft2 home this afternoon that is having issues with carpet beetles. The home has wool carpeting and Oriental rugs. He feels he can take care of the beetle issue; however, we need any advice you can give about getting the eggs, larva out of the carpeting.
Answer from Jeff Bishop, SCRT Technical Director: The installed carpet should be vacuumed thoroughly. Anticipate that these bugs lay eggs and burrow deep into the carpet pile, where they feed on protein fiber from the bottom up, often leaving only foundation yarns.
The truck-mount and wand should be used slowly and carefully to vacuum out anything you can. Concentrate on perimeter areas, since infestations normally don’t develop in room centers with high-traffic areas and frequent vacuuming. All furniture should be moved and carpet should be slowly and carefully hand-vacuumed thoroughly underneath.
Careful vacuuming should be followed by meticulous cleaning using WoolSafe-approved detergents.
After cleaning, a licensed exterminator can return and treat. It would be best to spray the back side of the carpet, but that entails a lot of extra effort (disengage and reinstall).
Response: If we bring the Oriental rugs into our plant, do we need to do anything different when cleaning them.
JB: When picking up rugs with infestations, wrap and seal them in 6-mil plastic. Then, they should be isolated from others in your facility. At the plant, they should be processed initially outside with vacuuming and dusting. The exterminator should treat them before they are brought inside for cleaning, in order to prevent cross contamination. Freezing them helps to kill off the little buggers, but that ain’t gonna happen in the sunny south.
After cleaning and drying, rugs should be vacuumed and treated again on the back side by a licensed exterminator before delivery to the customer’s home.
Response: Do we have any concern of cross contamination in both area rug cleaning and our cleaning equipment in the truck that would go to the home?
JB: Definitely. That’s why I recommend vacuuming, dusting and treating outside the plant before wet cleaning inside. Ask the exterminator for advice about treating your plant where rugs are processed – regularly. This holds down the potential for cross-infestation.
