When I moved into my house, many years ago, the carpet was muddy green. We lived with it for a reasonable amount of time until our own stains, added to the stains of people who came before us just became too much.

The kids were past the really messy stage, we told ourselves, quite incorrectly as it turned out. We decided to splurge on a lovely grey wool carpet, up the stairs and throughout the bedrooms. Downstairs has hard floors, mostly parquet.

Life moved on. The kids were messy. The cats scratched their way through parts of the carpets trying to get into their preferred bedrooms. Basically all was okay.

And then the moths arrived. Carpet and clothing moths are small and easily ignored until they reach critical mass and you’re faced with proof that they’ve eaten their way through your house. We had a small radiator leak in the un-used bedroom. It was fixed and the door closed. A few weeks later and the damage moths can cause to a damp piece of wool carpet was all too obvious.

We limped along with chemical sprays, blocks for the wardrobes (carpet moths eat clothes) and pheromone traps. The latter are especially gruesome as they trap the male moths on sticky paper, more a way to allow you to track how bad your infestation is (very bad) than to actually rid yourself of the problem.

Female carpet moths lay their eggs in quiet dark places with a food supply. They munch their way through fibres containing lignin, so animal products such as wool, cashmere, feathers, silk. Your cotton quilt cover is probably safe but your feather or wool stuffing in the quilt, less so.

Clothes were thrown out, sent to the dry cleaners and packed away in vacuumed plastic bags under the bed. Still the moths kept appearing.

Finally this Summer (just before the oven broke and the electricity scare came to light) I committed to a new carpet, the only condition that it may not contain any wool for the moths to eat. I also mentioned the three cats which quickly ruled out any thoughts of a loop carpet since they love to shred them with their claws. talking my way through the various artificial fibre options, we went for the one most similar to what we have already in place.

Apart from the moths, I like the look and feel of my carpet.

It turns out there are a lot of grey cut twist pile carpets out there. Shades of grey and cream neutrals seem to be the most common choices, though I was told that green is coming back into fashion.

But there really are a hundred shades of grey, and not all artificial fibres are equal. I’ve chosen the bluest grey and the easiest material to clean. In theory a glass of red wine should some out with a simple cold water wash. Ho hum.

And then there was the choice to re-carpet all of the house or just the rooms with obvious damage: the whole house was more expensive but only if we could persuade ourselves that we wouldn’t be looking at finishing the job after another five years of moths moving from room to room in search of munchies.

A whole house with new carpet just in time for any grandkids to arrive. Great.