Is this a clothes moth? How to get rid

[Whoopaday]

Squished something which I was worried was a silver fish but now I think it’s a clothes moth. Had some holes in my cotton cardigans and had blamed the washing machine!

Had a Quick Look on Amazon and there are some sachets/moth balls that have chemicals in them. Will that get rid/kill them or just make me ill?! Don’t fancy using a bug bomb/Fogger on all my clothes/bedroom

Photo would help…..

Looks like moth to me. I

Get hormone traps, do you have garden.
If so take all clothes outside into line and inspect each one. Hoover and hoover wardrobe and wipe everywhere spray with something. Get traps in... Douse in lavender.

Inspect clothes and chuck or freeze ones that look dodgy.

Hoover extensively around wardrobe, bedroom and washing stuff at 60.

Pheromone traps will help you see the scale of the problem.
They adore dark spaces so make sure keep wardrobe doors open for a while open curtains.. Hoover disturb clean.

We had a bad infestation. I had no idea what these pretty silver moths where... It was pretty bad.
I did above, took all drawers out and did above.

Don't see them but we keep on top of lavender etc also it's good to do this in sunny hot weather they hate sun.

Thanks, do you have any recommendations for the hormone traps?

I bought these and put one in a cardboard toilet roll holder instead of buying the plastic hanger. Managed to catch a few so they seem to work!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0086OZO12?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

Definitely moths, you need to put sticky pheromone traps down in wardrobes, under beds, they like to live between the carpet and the underlay so are a real bigger to get rid of. We ended up taking up all our carpet ( tried sprays and bombs ). You can also use moth balls alongside but you really need to catch the adult moths and stop them breeding. Would also recommend getting as many clothes as you can in airtight boxes to minimise damage.

We have wool carpets and I found moths in two small areas. I hoovered daily and sprayed several times with an Acana carpet moth spray, paying extra attention to under the edges of the skirting boards. I haven't seen a moth or larvae for two years.

If it is clothes moths, these are the devil to get rid of. We have them in the wool carpets in the communal areas of our block of flats and they've eaten all the way down through the underlay to the bare weave in huge patches. This is despite the management company putting out loads of sticky traps and spraying the carpet more than once. Looks awful and we are waiting to pay for replacement carpet. Everyone in our block had had issues in our flats.

They go for natural fabrics like wool, cashmere & cotton first so get out anything you have like that and inspect closely for larvae. This is what eats the fabric not the moths.

I used moth sprays and traps (from Amazon) & natural moth repellents but still ended up having to throw out several nice (expensive!) jumpers, winter scarves, hats and gloves all with massive holes. They also ate some wool thermals and socks for hiking. Bastard things. All of these were in plastic bags in a suitcase under the spare room bed. and in a cupboard above the wardrobe. One bag was absolutely crawling with larvae, revolting.

You can freeze clothing items for at least 2 days and apparently it kills the larvae off. Not much else does. Good luck!

Oh @Gerwurtztraminer that sounds horrific! We don’t have carpet, so hoping that’s a bonus. Have ordered some traps to work out whose room they are in before moving forward. I thought I was relieved when I thought they weren’t silverfish, but now the thought of wearing clothes with larvae on them is not good!

I've battled with these fuckers before in our last flat. Used to piss me off to no end, seeing them on the walls and crawling about.

The only way I managed to beat them was by washing every single soft furnishing and bagging up, and wiping every surface. And also moving out (renting).

You want to wash and deep clean everything before they spread anywhere. Try sprays, but its not clear if they really work.

Don’t bother with ‘moth balls’ and natural ‘repellents’.

Put the pheromone traps in every cupboard and room.

Use Zero In killer papers in wardrobes and drawers. Vacuum carpets and spray with Zero In spray. Follow the instructions and it won’t kill you.

they are very difficult to get rid of so until you do, put all your woollens into bags you can seal completely, even just large clear bags or bin liners that you can knot.

I don't think they eat cotton, but they love any animal hair like wool, cashmere, etc, but will only lay eggs in a spot that has some dirt like a spot of food, and also dark and undisturbed so the eggs can hatch and larvae eat the dirty wool in peace, then spin a cocoon and hatch into moths. This process takes a while though (at least weeks) so you can easily disrupt their life cycle by shaking out, cleaning or brushing anything that they might eat.

And very important if you have pets - they can eat pet hair. So hoover like mad as little tumbleweeds of cat hair in dark corners can be places for the moths to breed. Good luck!

I can't really help because they beat me. If you have wool carpets or rugs, move everything to check for damage. If just clothes being damaged, wear and wash frequently - anything that is being stored is at risk. The sticky traps are good to show where the problem is, but vacuuming and washing is the only way to get rid of them. Even that may not be enough if vacuuming is infrequent and washing is at low temperatures. I ended up binning wool carpets.

I had this issue and used some of these traps which I bought off Amazon. They caught absolutely loads of the things, and I haven’t had a repeat of the problem so they seem to work.

The problem with moth traps is that most only attract the males, and they often look at them laugh as they head for some wool. It doesn't deal with the moths waiting to hatch either. They do give you an idea of how serious the problem is and where they are though.