plagued with moths - tips to get rid of?

littlerock

We have been plagued with moths this year - made serious inroads on our admittedly old front room carpet while we were away. I thought it was just me but met neighbour in street who said she had similar problems with her hall carpet this year. Semms they are pretty endemic locally.

Had a commercial treatment of carpets and have used various sprays ongoing but still find them flitting around. In last week have found them in box of postcards and recently washed cotton dressing gown. Anyone got any pet or tested solutions.

Lungboy

Vacuum the everloving crap out of your carpets, again and again and again. When we had moths that was the only thing that worked. I spent hours on my hands and knees with the vacuum hose with no attachment to get max suction on a small area of carpet.

Gingernutty

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4020737

Biggles

Lungboy wrote: »

Vacuum the everloving crap out of your carpets, again and again and again.

Yup. And that means especially under furniture. You'll get fed up moving it around but it's the only thing that'll work for sure.

Lungboy

Gingernutty wrote: »

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4020737

The cedar balls mentioned in that thread did nothing for our problem, the little sods totally ignored them.

mchale

I would try a sulphur candle.

Biggles

mchale wrote: »

I would try a sulphur candle.

Alight? On the carpet, under the furniture, where these moths go? I'll pass on that, I think.

mchale

Biggles wrote: »

Alight? On the carpet, under the furniture, where these moths go? I'll pass on that, I think.

Do you know what a sulphur candle is??

Callie22

Many years ago my grandparents had a major moth problem - my grandad had bought some cheap wool carpet that had not been treated with insecticide and by the time they realised they had a moth problem, the little sods had literally eaten the carpet through to the backing below beneath practically every piece of furniture.

In the end, they ended up treating the house with a cypermethrin-based insecticide (I think) and replacing the carpets. My granny was something of a hoarder and had lots of clothes and knitting wool - almost everything made from a natural fibre had to be disposed of as it had been nibbled, and the rest had to be washed and bagged. We also bought hundreds of mothballs, which stink but do work at keeping them away, as well as cedarwood blocks for the wardrobes.

I have to say it was a bloomin' nightmare getting rid of the dratted things, and it took a couple of months of very diligent cleaning before we could be confident that they'd gone. There was LOTS of vacuuming, particularly in the corners and under furniture. The worst thing you can do is never vacuum under something - that's how they took such a hold with my grandparents.

mishkanorman

Try a flea treatment called Indorex, we had issues with silverfish and it cleared hundreds of them out where we had no idea they were lurking. Works great on spiders too !