Homes in Greater London are most at-risk of home invading insects
In the UK, we identified 118 species of insects and their allies known for invading homes and causing damage to clothes, fabrics or certain surfaces and structures of the home. While we can take steps to keep ants out by filling in the cracks of your home or take other similar steps for other insects, it is important to understand just what is coming in so we can help prevent this.
Greater London ranks as the county with the most unique species (64) of insect invaders identified in our analysis.
Of these 64 species the following are included:
- Anthrenus verbasci (varied carpet beetle)
- Hofmannophila pseudospretella (brown house moth)
- Blattella germanica (German cockroach)
- Psychidae (bagworm moth)
- Lepisma saccharina (silverfish)
2. Most Destructive Insects for Damaging Clothes and Fabrics
These are six of the worst-offending types of creepy-crawlies for damaging your home and wardrobe:
Clothes Moths
Clothes moths lay their eggs on natural fabrics like wool and fur and the larvae eat away at the material they’ve spun their webbing across, leaving holes and weak fibres in their wake. The common clothes moth can be found worldwide and is one of the most aggressive species of clothes moth for damaging textiles.
Carpet Beetles
While adult carpet beetles aren’t fussed by fashion, the larvae they hatch on your clothes will happily feed on natural fabric like fur, mohair, wool, and even leather. They’ll also chomp away at synthetic clothing stained by food. It may be a good choice to look at contacting a local service that can clean your carpets thoroughly or speak to a similar type of service with a Richmond rug cleaning company, depending on where you are, to see what they can do to help.
Cockroaches
Cockroaches love to dine on (and damage) clothes stained with human sweat, food stains, and laundry starch. What’s more, cockroach waste can leave unsightly dark brown stains on fabric that can only be removed with bleach.
Silverfish
At less than an inch in length, the silverfish is a tiny menace to your wardrobe. They love chowing down on protein-packed fibres like cotton, silk, and linen, and are attracted to clothes with food and bodily fluid stains.
Firebrats
This curious critter is part of the same insect family as the silverfish but prefers a hotter environment. Like their silverfish cousins, firebrats relish nibbling on natural fibres rich in carbohydrates, proteins, and sugar.
House Crickets
The tiny house cricket has an oversized appetite for natural and synthetic fabrics, posing a disaster to not only clothes (preferably sweat-stained) but carpet and upholstery too. They tend to roughen fabric as they feed and pull fibres loose