Clothes moth invasion!

dandy-candy

We seem to be having an explosion of clothes moths here these last few months, and I'm not sure how to deal with it. We don't have many wool clothes but I do find them on our (fitted) carpet which is 18 years old so no idea why they are nibbling it now!

We are probably squishing about 10 a day, but they endlessly appear. I just had some new knitting wool delivered yesterday, but I'm keeping it in a poly bag as I'm scared it will get munched.

Any super effective tips for getting rid of them?

GreyQueen

Can I ask, what are you squishing - moths themselves or little white grubs? The grubs do the chewing but will only be chewing carpet if it's natural fibre - what is yours made of?

Clothes moths are small, golden toffee coloured, flee away from light and prefer to run rather than fly. And yes, I have had an infestation of them.

thriftwizard

Me too. As a spinner/felter, they're a bit of a nightmare. I think somehow that conditions have been especially favourable for them over the last few years, as lots of people are telling me that they've had infestations - possibly because I'm looking for somewhere to store a rather-large 250Kg bale of washed & carded Portland fleece on behalf of our Guild! The moths first came to me when I was looking after four dumpy bags of alpaca fleece, which had been stored open in a barn; I should just have composted the lot, but idiotically didn't, and have ended up with an endemic moth infestation in the garage. This is Not Good, because in my line of work I often have to store woollen goods - jumpers, hats, rugs, blankets etc. - and I really don't want to be passing them on.

I know my mother believes that the only real defence against them is mothballs and/or keeping everything in a sandalwood chest. However, even if I had enough money to by a sandalwood chest, I can't imagine one big enough - I'd need a sandalwood shed! So I keep my fleeces, woollen hats & vintage jumpers in tightly-clipped woven polypropylene bags - somehow moths don't seem to be able to worm their little way into those, undamaged ones are very tightly woven, but the goods inside can still "breathe" - with a bar of Mysore Sandal soap in each one, because I suspect my customers would not be overly delighted with the smell of mothballs. Lavender's supposed to be good, too, but I haven't tried that. Cedarwood/cedar balls also have their aficionados. Rugs are steamed or shampooed before going for sale, and those in use in the house are hauled out & hoovered or even beaten regularly. We don't have fitted carpets so I know they're not being harboured under anything fixed.

Basically - I'm no expert, because if I were, we wouldn't still have a problem! I have a feeling that any easy answers are going to involve chemicals I don't want in my household, or even my garage...

dinx1972

I clean for a lady in a very large Georgian house with the biggest clothes moth invasion I have ever seen. We have been waging war with them for nearly 4 years now.

Like others have said they like dark places especially behind wardrobes and around skirting board level. If they are as you say in the carpets you need to be squishing the larvae (these are the munchers).

Pheromone (sp) clothes moth traps are good as they attract one sex of the actual moth to them so they don't mate, so will help to control future numbers.

Keeping skirting boards and carpet edges dust free helps, but remember they can still live in Hoover bags so either change regularly or pop moth balls in.

Also re the the lavender, my clients infestation is so bad they actually eat the lavender put into bags to stop them :eek:.

I can help further if you would like pm me.

THIRZAH

I think Lakeland still sell the cedar blocks for detering moths. DD bought some when she had an invasion in her room at uni.

Freezing wool will kill the larvae.

dandy-candy

Wow Thriftwizard that's a look of wool to store!
The carpet is a high wool content but I not sure exactly what percent as my dad got it for us as a wedding present.
I have a steam cleaner which I will give the carpet a blast with, hopefully that will work? I've not heard of the pheromone things but I agree that mothballs/camphor are stinky!
We're only squishing moths as we haven't seen the grubs at all - yuk! Also we have found a few small holes in DH cotton tshirts, do they munch cotton too??

camelot1001

Storing clothes in a vacuum bag is supposed to help as they will suffocate but appreciate that a carpet will not fit in one!

GreyQueen

dandy-candy wrote: »

Wow Thriftwizard that's a look of wool to store!
The carpet is a high wool content but I not sure exactly what percent as my dad got it for us as a wedding present.
I have a steam cleaner which I will give the carpet a blast with, hopefully that will work? I've not heard of the pheromone things but I agree that mothballs/camphor are stinky!
We're only squishing moths as we haven't seen the grubs at all - yuk! Also we have found a few small holes in DH cotton tshirts, do they munch cotton too??

They'll eat any natural fibre but much prefer wool. Their eco-niche is to dipose of hair and feather on dead animals, they've just moved into human homes because they can. They can also be in taxidermied stuffed animals, but only a minority of people will have those at home, I guess. Cotton shirts could possibly be showing wear holes, rather than moth holes, though.

The grubs start munching in areas which are marked with organic materials. Don't want to be too icky or imply that anyone is a dirty beggar, but they focus their munching on areas where bodily fluids/ food wastes have touched the cloth. Which is why it is recommended that any textiles put away for storage be scrupulously clean.

I wouldn't give trad mothballs houseroom as I think their active ingredient is paradichlorobenzine, a nerve agent. Haven't used a steam cleaner but I wonder if steaming areas like the carpet/ skirting board margin and under fuirniture might mahoosively discourage them.

Any kind of infestation is tiresome to deal with and requires a lot of vigilence. I'm now motivated to get the vacuum under the bed, to discourage the dust bunnies from getting too cosy.

theoretica

If you can, move all your furniture and clean under it. The worst infestations are often under things you think as so tight to the floor there is no chance they have got there! So for instance not just under the bed, but under the bed legs.

jackyann

Things like sandalwood, lavender, cedar etc. are a deterrent - they will tend to keep moths away.
However, if you've got them, then I found (some years ago) the only way to get rid was to move and clean EVERYTHING! Include taking up the carpet etc. I used moth killer (NOT deterrent) sprays. You can buy from home stores & Lakeland etc.

I'm afraid that I then moved (planned anyway!) and as I was worried about taking moths with me, I then hung moth killer holders in the wardrobe for awhile.

Now I'm back to lavender & sandalwood as a deterrent.

But I don't know if I got rid of them in the temporary home I had - I only know that I avoided transporting them to my new one!

Waffle_On

If it gets bad enough to take the professional route, there was a tv programme on recently with pest controllers and they dealt with a moth infestation. I think they used a combination of insecticide spray, putting things in a freezer and a heat treatment to kill them. No idea how much that little lot would cost though!