A new campaign has been launched to combat the rising number of clothes moths which are destroying historic houses like Walmer Castle.

English Heritage, which re-opened many of its sites to the public this week, has revealed that monitoring by their team of expert conservators has seen the number of clothes moths double over the past five years.

This includes at Walmer Castle and Gardens, where regular monitoring has picked up an increase in moths, enabling the early signs of damage to a new carpet to be detected soon enough to prevent it spreading further.

To fight this threat, the charity is calling on the public to join Operation Clothes Moth and help to measure the extent of the household pests.

From now, anyone visiting an English Heritage site will be able to collect a free ‘clothes moth trap’ to place in their home, which the charity hope will help to map the spread of insect pests across the country.

Amber Xavier-Rowe, head of collections conservation for English Heritage, said: “We regularly monitor insect pest activity to ensure our collections get the best possible care, but any sudden change in species behaviour or increase in numbers is a concern.

“Many people around the country will no doubt know the exasperation of finding clothes moth damage in a much-loved jumper or coat, so we want people to come to our sites, collect a free clothes moth trap, and get involved.

“While we suspect factors including warmer weather and the increased use of heating inside homes is partly to blame, we hope this campaign helps us to better learn how to combat the rise of the clothes moth!”

Clothes moths are a common threat to interiors, as they live indoors and their larvae feed on woollen carpets, clothing, upholstery, fur and even taxidermy, resulting in the appearance of holes or patches.

And new species like the Monopis, also known as the Pale Backed Clothes Moth, are beginning to appear for the first time.

English Heritage has been actively monitoring the spread of clothes moths since 1995, and now monitors at more than 40 sites across the country, with the aim of preventing damage to about 500,000 historic artefacts in their care.

The traps are impregnated with the female sex pheromone of the clothes moth.

They are available now from all English Heritage staffed properties including Deal, Walmer and Dover castles.

Visitors are asked to place them in their own homes and feed their findings back later this year, helping to map the spread of clothes moths across the country, and inform future prevention measures.