To think I need to burn all of my clothes?

[Frequency]

I found a moth in my wardrobe. Luckily, I managed to lock it in before it crawled into my ear and ate my brain and messaged my mum for help evicting it before it eats my clothes or worse... escapes.

She's just replied that we will need to look for eggs.

Moth Eggs.

Obviously, the entire wardrobe and everything in it now needs to be burned. In fact, the whole house might need cleansing with fire.

I am not being unreasonable.

Not necessarily.

We found carpet moth caterpillars a number of years ago in a pure wool carpet. But the moths also laid their eggs in two rooms that had synthetic carpet tiles and these had patches where caterpillars had been eating the tiles and hatched leaving little cocoons spun from polyester and nylon fibres.

We managed to eradicate clothes moths butwe still find the odd carpet moth caterpillar or cocoon after 13 years.

It's not the moths that do the damage - it is the caterpillars. I keep all my wool jumpers in poly bags.

Do you have clothes made of wool?

It's much bigger than the moths pictured on this thread, but I am not opening the wardrobe to get a closer look until back-up arrives.

It was big and dark brown.

My wardrobe is in sections, all closed off from each other. It is in my t-shirts and hoodies section, which is mostly Primarni, so I doubt it has much sustenance if it is a clothes moth.

Lavender soap in all your drawers and cupboards, even under the beds. Hang stuff outside in the sunshine for a day if you can.

You may jest but I actually had a bloody moth stuck in my ear for 2 days!!

I still shudder thinking about it. No amount of rinsing even by medics could get the fucker out. I finally felt it dislodge a little while eating something very chewy and managed to fish it out with long tweezers.

I used to have a live and let live approach to moths in the house but now I operate a zero tolerance approach and either I or the cat have 'em!

Show some compassion, folks. The moth has clearly eaten the OPs brain already.

My cat's campaign of terror on the local mouse population plus subsequent unexpected displays around the house of said trophies might be his reaction to me having him neutered. I do feel a bit sorry for him being testicle free now and then but I will now steel myself as I nearly stepped on a dead mouse the other morning because I was barefoot and hadn't put my glasses on. I feel he has the last laugh..

Sorry didn’t rtft. I think the moth pheremone traps are part of the problem!
Think about it, they encourage male moths to fly towardsthe sticky paper, so they are attracting moths to your wardrobe instead of repelling them. You get a new continuous supply of wool eating moths. So you buy more!
The maker of these things is brilliant.

Seconded

Put woollen things in the deep freeze for several days.

Me too🙄 made the mistake of putting pure wool carpet down up two sets of stairs which came with its own resident moths!! I also have mini hoover (£15 off Amazon recharges with usb) which lives on the landing to knab any that resist the pheromone sticky pads mostly females I presume!

@Frequency it's not the moths that eat your clothes, it's the lavae that come after the eggs are laid so your probably best evicting said wardrobe moth, although to be honest they seem to prefer munching on pure wool, never had any eat my clothes which aren't wool. Might just be one that came in from outside, they tend to be bigger, darker and go for the lights.

It escaped the wardrobe. Or rather, the bastard cat let it out.

Back-up did arrive and evicted it from the house. It was not a clothes moth.

I am still giving serious consideration to burning the house down. The cat's future as a household member is also looking rocky, since she is the one who opened the flyscreen on the window and let it in in the first place.

Jesus how big are people’s freezers? I can barely get a frozen jacket potato in mine

These cute wasps will eat the moths.

https://dragonfli.co.uk/collections/clothes-moths?src=GAds&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23574180887&gclid=CjwKCAjw857RBhAgEiwAI-1yKMzOOxXPqnD-vdrmpBp45XEerBh_ECLEyC0oBv5A71ZnCfUO0xT5CxoCCjsQAvD_BwE

I find these threads so tiresome.

If it is a random moth, let it out job done (and not killing something just because you can, why would anyone do that?).

If it is a cloth moth (not very likely) deal with accordingly.

or a rat.

Are you trying to be funny? You don't burn down your wardrobe because of a bloody moth. Are you insane?

That's the treatment for spiders. Silly. 😄 🤣 xx

I love your post and you are NOT being unreasonable.

I would buy a moth outfit on amazon and scare the shit out of her.

So there are approximately 2500 varieties of moth in the UK. Fewer than six of them eat clothing. I know you are being humorous, but honestly, just check your clothing. It is not adult moths that eat clothing, just their larvae. They also only eat ‘natural fibres’ so just check any silk, cashmere, leather goods etc and if there is no evidence of eggs, you are probably good to go. A moth repellent/treatment that you can pop in the wardrobe might put your mind at rest though.

Just out of curiosity, for the people on here who are phobic about moths, are you also freaked out by butterflies and other flying insects? I don’t really get it but I guess that’s the thing with phobias.

I follow someone on Instagram who posts beautiful pictures of moths, compared to butterflies there are many more different types of pretty, colourful moths in this country but most of them we don’t see around. Except tiger moths and everyone just assumes they are butterflies. #TeamMoth

Clothes moths aren't big! They're a centimetre long at most.

It used to only be moths. The fluttering noise, bashing against light bulbs. Three massive hairy ones got stuck in my bedroom one night when i was young and I found two on a wall. The third... was sitting on my BARE LEG.

That was it.

I am generally ok with butterflies when they are not close to me. Going into the butterfly enclosure at Longleat was a mistake though. Too many. Too big. Too close. Flutter flutter.

Hate them. Full body shudder and sick feelings. Urgh.

I think just burn the whole house it’s for the best!