Help! Moths have chomped my clothes!!!

rubytuesday

Yes we had an infestation for the first time this year. I took an old cardigan that I've had for about a hundred years out of the drawer and all the buttons fell off where they'd been chomped (my daughter still wears it though!) then found one of my old cotton bedspreads was more hole than bedspread! I've bought the cedar balls and hangers and they don't seem so bad but we have still got them. I think it's been particularily bad this year!

mardatha

O great. I need to go and empty out the whole wardrobe now..

[Deleted User]

My old Mum swore by a pipe that my Dad used to smoke she said even the moths didn't like the smell of it

Emm-in-a-pickle

Sorry, moths don`t eat cotton but `carpet beetles` do. Sounds like this is what you have eating your wardrobe contents.

mardatha

:eek: It's very odd. Is only the towels, nothing else. They are in one of those Ikea wire basket units inside the wardrobe. The clothes in the wardrobe are fine. :mad: the carpets are fine, everything is fine except the bl**dy towels !:mad:

Emm-in-a-pickle

They`re just called carpet beetles, they don`t necessarily EAT carpets, and it`s the larvae that eat stuff.

rubytuesday

You are right about the carpet beetles but the casemaking clothes moth will also eat cotton if natural fibres aren't available.

bitsandpieces

Not sure whether I need to do something about moths? I've seen (and killed) what looks like a few case-bearing clothes moths flying around my home. Are these like rats - if you see one, there are lots of the sods? I've had my windows open a lot lately because of the nice weather, so all kinds of things have been flying inside.

I noticed a couple of months ago that a couple of t-shirts had what looked like moth holes. No damage since, though (and they were old - could just have worn out). I put a pheromone moth trap up in my wardrobe a month or so ago which has caught only 1 moth (may not work for the case-bearing type, though).

I don't know if I should be panicking and hunting for ways to fix this, or take a more chilled approach. Any suggestions?

Sandringham_2

Live and Let Live.

You are likely to be killing innocent critters that are doing no harm to you or your clothes.

To keep the clothes Moth away (and this is just one type of Moth, not all Moths) just find some old socks and fill with Rosemary leaves and or Lavender flower heads and tie a knot in the end and leave these in your clothes draws and wardrobes (this does the trick every time for me).

Sandringham

bitsandpieces

You're clearly a much gentler person that me I do generally help insects (inc most moth species) out if they get inside. I struggle to be so nice to ones that can cause damage, though.

I've heard that lavender, cedar etc. can be useful, but not sure if there are other things I should try.