The rate of carpet beetle damage is a little slower than you think

I placed a circle cut from a 100% wool sweater in a bottle cap and placed 5 carpet beetles on it for a week (74 F / 23 C at ~40% RH)

As you can see, there’s no visible damage to this small swatch yet. This further demonstrates why items stored long term are at greater risk of damage. The damage happens slowly over time and only has the potential to get really bad if it goes unobserved and undisturbed for too long.

I’ll keep it going with periodic updates.