Wool mattress and carpet beetles

I am in the market for a new mattress partly to upgrade size, ditch the chemicals/off-gassing and because we discovered carpet beetles not too long ago around the mattress and I’m too grossed out to sleep in it again. Here’s my conundrum: I’d prefer to go as natural as possible and have peeked around at wool mattresses. But carpet beetles love wool so this sounds like a very bad idea. However, the mattress can come with a linen or cotton exterior, which beetles seem to not like and I could get an encasement and put it on immediately upon receiving a new mattress. Do you think this would be adequate in keeping these buggers out of the bed? Would it affect the ability of the wool to breathe? We’re also considering a raised platform bed and ditching the dressers so the only furniture of significance would be the bed. And I just got a fancy vacuum (and borax and DE) to help keep these critters and their preferred meal at bay. I just don’t want to spend a ton of money to have my bed eaten! Thanks!

Hi KSeasay,

The most natural materials would be 100% natural latex (see post #18 here), natural fibers (such as wool, cotton, flax linen, silk etc), rubberized coir, and depending on how you are defining natural … perhaps steel innersprings or microcoils as well (steel isn’t natural but most people would consider it to be “natural enough”.

There are also many materials that aren’t completely natural that are certainly very safe.

While it may be more information than you are looking for … there is also a lot more information in post #2 here and the more detailed posts and information it links to about safe, natural, organic, “chemical free”, and “green” mattresses and mattress materials that can help you sort through some of the marketing information and terminology that you will encounter in the industry and can help you differentiate between them and answer “how safe is safe enough for me” or “how natural is natural enough for me” and that can help you decide on the type of materials and components you are most comfortable having in your mattress or on the certifications that may be important to you. These types of issues are complex and are generally specific to each person and their individual sensitivities, circumstances, criteria, beliefs, and lifestyle choices.

There is more about wool mattresses in this topic and some of the information about wool toppers in post #8 here and the posts it links to would apply to wool mattresses as well.

I’m certainly no expert on carpet beetles or their larvae which eat wool but some of the information in this topic may be helpful. I think that if a wool mattress has a good quality cotton cover that it shouldn’t be an issue in most cases because carpet beetles don’t like cellulosic fibers such as cotton. A mattress encasement should also keep them out of your mattress.

That would depend to some degree on the type of mattress encasement you were using. The encasements with a semi breathable membrane would have less airflow and have a bigger effect on temperature regulation than some of the tightly woven cotton mattress encasements. There is more about some of the different types of mattress encasements in post #2 here.

Wool mattress manufacturers would also be very familiar with carpet beetles and would also be able to give you some good guidance about carpet beetles as well.

Phoenix