It's not the flying moths that cause the damage but their larvae, and they love dark, undisturbed areas. The trick is to move the furniture and vacuum that area regularly and to flip the rug over and vacuum the back too. You can put moth crystals down but they lose their potency after a while so you'd have to replace them. I know you can have the rug rewoven if necessary but that can get expensive. Oh and the moths may also have been visiting your closets so you might want to check there too.

I know, this wasn't very encouraging but with vigilence you'll defeat them.

Not sure, how big your rug is. My treatment for the storage of my wool sweaters is:

Seal up in plastic bags, and toss in the freezer for a couple of weeks. This should kill all larvae (I hope). I then just leave it in the plastic bag, and store on a shelf till next winter.

Nope, the rug's too big to freeze. But I'll follow your directions, Mcmann--thanks!

As for closets, I live in an 1850 house. What closets? :-)

Well you might not be able to put your rug in the freezer like Moni does with her sweeaters. But just wait until you have a really bitter cold spell in February - you know they'll be coming - then you can pull your rug out onto your porch and voila! a great big walk out freezer. Now, just how big is your rug?

Yes! If you get Real Winter -- take the rug outdoors. People used to routinely take rugs out onto the snow; turn them face down; beat the dirt out and leave them out to freeze. When you bring it indoors again, it will need to 'thaw' somewhere. You don't want to spread a frozen rug on a nice wood floor and have water damage.

Good idea! I think the rug is 5 x 8'. I took a picture of it and will post it one of these days.

Thanks!