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Housekeeping

Find cleaning advice from other Mumsnetters on our Housekeeping forum.

Original poster

How do I get rid of clothes moths?

32 replies

hackneyzoo · 17/03/2011 13:26

They are tiny little silvery brown ones. I have washed the clothes and cleaned the storage boxes and shelves...how do I stop them coming back?

OP posts:
Fluffycloudland77 · 17/03/2011 15:04

Bags of lavender or moth repellant. I think john lewis does them.

dotty2 · 18/03/2011 12:57

Washing won't necessarily kill the eggs. If you have anything you care about a lot, you might want to freeze treat it. Put it in a bag in the freezer for 2 days, take it out, let it get to room temperature and put it back for another 2 days (that way if anything survives the first freezing, it will start to do its stuff and won't be prepared for the second freezing. Ha!)

deliakate · 20/03/2011 18:44

Regularly turn out all cupboards/wardrobes. They hate being disturbed, and if you do that every few months, you can keep an eye on whats going on.

Also, freezing things like dotty says will kill them, so for woolens etc, this is a good idea.

Original poster
hackneyzoo · 31/03/2011 19:32

Thanks for te advice...the freezing seems to have done the trick...so far.. Smile

OP posts:
janx · 31/03/2011 19:50

There is an epidemic in Hackney! How is the mb?

Original poster
hackneyzoo · 31/03/2011 20:19

It's brilliant, have just had number 3 and can cram all of them into it if I'm desperate on the school run! Love it! Do you know if its possible to take the covers off to wash as my boy has put his muddy wellies all over the back!
Is there really an epidemic in Hackney?

OP posts:
janx · 31/03/2011 21:19

yes you can take the covers off - but can't remember how...sorry no brain. Put a thread on the pram board and someone will know
We have big moth problems - have got into the carpet - everyone has got them in stokey and the hardware shop in church street told me it is huge problem - I am spending a fortune on products Angry

dikkertjedap · 31/03/2011 22:16

Proper heavy duty poisonous moth spray (and opening windows and not going in until is properly aired). Also, handwashing would not kill eggs, so you need to wash hot (60 degrees) or dry clean. Moths don't like light and don't like cold air, so opening wardrobes a lot and leave them open during day with windows open. You will have to do this over a prolonged period of time as eggs will be missed and will hatch.

snorkie · 31/03/2011 23:29

They are the devil to get rid of - the eggs are virtually indestructible and are laid in the tiniest of crevaces in floor boards behind skirting boards etc. They may also infest your carpets. The only pesticides now available tend to just give the larvae a mild headache rather than actually killing them as the more potent ones were banned a few years ago. Lavender bags/ cedarwood balls just might help as a deterant but are fairly useless against an established infestation. Hot washing, dry cleaning or freezing (for several days) will work, but if there are new eggs to hatch in carpets, soft furnishings or floorboards you will have to do this repeatedly. You can get pheremone traps, but these only attract and kill the male moths, so only work to reduce the rapidity of the increase of the infestation rather than eliminate it as it only takes one male to meet one female before it gets to the trap and the cycle continues.

Some people move house to get rid of them & then usually find they have inadvertently carried the infestation with them to the new place.

We had their cousins the carpet moths (both can infest both clothes and carpets - the name just indicates their preference) last summer & took fairly radical steps, but I'll be surprised if we eliminated them completely - we'll find out in the spring I guess.

bobthebuddha · 31/03/2011 23:36

janx, I'd never met one of the buggers until we moved to Hackney. Now I fear we're just going to carry them with us wherever we move, forever. Nothing seems to eliminate them. Horrible, horrible things...

pinkhebe · 20/04/2011 10:42

Oh god, we have them in the airing cupboard Sad. I have been hot washing all infected linen, but I have loads of stuff in there it's going to take forever Sad

Anyway, I have emptied the airing cupboard, checked through all the towels and sheets, washed the few items which had catepillars/cocoons on, and started on washing ALL the rest. Thank god it's a sunny day.

No insect killer in the house, but I have been squirting 'oust' on any moths I see which seems to be killing them Grin, collecting any catepillars I see and disposing of them.

I think I'll put all the linen not washed in a black bin bag and see if anything hatches, because I really can't wash everything....

Prunnhilda · 20/04/2011 10:48

We use the Clap of Death and kill all the flitterers.
They seem to have no substance at all.
Pheromone traps (sticky prisms) are good but £. You put them on the floor near the skirting or in a dark place in the wardrobe.

KatieMiddleton · 20/04/2011 10:49

Rentokil will come and spray if it's really bad. They have quarterly programmes and everything. The little buggers are endemic throughout London.

I keep thinking about it but spraying, hoovering and putting clean clothes into storage twice a year has been ok so far. I've damaged more things hot washing than the moths got Hmm

pinkhebe · 20/04/2011 10:50

I'm trying to get the cat to stay near, but he's quite useless at catching them (although it's funny watching him)

KatieMiddleton · 20/04/2011 10:51

Yy pheromone traps v good. You don't even need to buy the plastic bit. Just the sticky pads will get the blighters. Just don't forget where you've put it and stand on it/put your hand on a load of super sticky dead moths. Yuk!

deliakate · 20/04/2011 12:19

You can get rid of them. DH's flat was riddled when i moved in, and I almost got on top of them there. Since we moved, we haven't brought them too (or they have not taken a hold). They were even in his books!!

SparkyToo · 22/04/2011 11:31

I use cedar wood (if I remember rightly) in wardrobes and drawers and haven't had too much of a problem with moths (thank goodness - it is really annoying when they wreck your best jumper that cost a fortune!).

But just thought I'd mention these brilliant storage bags that I recently came across at a show. You suck out the air with a hoover and so they squash down really small (so saving on space). But being airtight etc - there's no chance of moth infestation either, which is just a bonus. Can't recommend them enough for those lacking in storage space!

echt · 23/04/2011 20:09

Borax sprinkled on carpets and then hoovered.

All drawers cleaned with hot water and borax annually.

Conkers instead of mothballs. They seem to do the trick and don't make your clothes smell.

Now I'm in Australia, I can't get conkers.:(

FoxtrotMikiLima · 23/04/2011 20:19

Just a thought but we had moths a while ago in a different house which I thought were clothes moths - they weren't, they were apparently house moths (brown, black and silver). I initially found them in my wardrobe but the little culprits actually started off in the kitchen and after months of scrupulous cleaning, they kept coming back. I eventually traced them back to an old packet of brazil nuts (nasty little maggoty things) which were in a tupperware tub. Apparently they can eat through plastic.

It might be worth checking online for pictures of clothes and house moths just in case.

whomovedmychocolate · 23/04/2011 20:20

Calibri sachets (Lakeland/John Lewis), cedarwood hangers or hanger charms, and vacuum the buggery out of your closets.

BestNameEver · 23/04/2011 20:26

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

pinkhebe · 23/04/2011 20:34

I've googled house moths and clothes moths, I think they are house moths. Not much difference, they still eat clothes and are a pest Sad

IngridBergman · 23/04/2011 20:54

I agree you can (almost, at least) get shot of the buggers if you are keen.

We had them at our old place, which I let get out of hand but when we moved here I realised they were already eating the place before we arrived - masses of them.

Hoovering is the big answer. Moth spray on carpets, especially underneath furniture that never gets moved, is also a good deterrent. I tend to spray under stuff about once a year and hoover UNDER our big wool rugs (they don't eat manmade carpet, so bedroom of ds is safe!) but they like to have hatchlings under the rugs, so hoover harshly and thoroughly underneath and on top.

Keep anything you're not using much (winter coats, blankets, anything wool such as scarves) in vacuum bags (as someone linked to I think) and certainly your nice curtains especially velvet ones.

keep disturbing stuff. They hate it. They only get a hold once things have been left for a while. I accept them as part of our rather cluttered lifestyle these days, clap the ones I see flying Sad and hoover a lot. And don't have wool carpets!

For some reason they LOVE laminate floors, I think it's all the dust.

FoxtrotMikiLima · 23/04/2011 20:54

Pinkhebe if they are house moths, the advice we were given (and which worked) was to throw out all open packets of food, particularly fruit, nuts and pasta, clean shelves again and put lavender bags/paper in, plus clean any boots or shoes with traces of mud or leaves in the soles (as we were told they feed on detritus like this). Hope it works :)

pinkhebe · 24/04/2011 20:50

thanks foxtrot, They seem to be coming from ds's bedroom and the airing cupboard in particular, I'm slightly cross as I'd been through it a month or so ago, sorting out the towels + linen. anyway we are hoovering and swatting moths like you wouldn't believe Grin

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