Moths or is washing machine eating my clothes?

[FloydieDoydie]

Have noticed holes appearing in both my and DHs clothes recently. Mostly smallish, but was rather shocked last night to pull on my boy short knickers to sleep in and find three large (10p sized) holes in them!

Now an underwire came out of one of my massive norked bras a couple of weeks ago and sounds like it's jammed user the cylinder in the washing machine, as it sounds terrible when it spins. I know im not supposed to machine wash bras for this reason, butI've never in my life had an underwire come out before,

So, have we got clothes moths, or is my machine chewing bits out of my clothes?

ime, you will see moths around if you have moths. To get moths you need to leave somewhat dirty natural-fibre clothes lying around in the light in warm conditions. Moths don't like dark places, they don't eat polyester, they need some moisture or organic-soiling on the clothes to get established.

I only ever got moths when I left baby sleepsuits out for a while without washing. They had things like bits of dried porridge on them. And the moths only got established on those items, not on anything else I left lying about. Moths disappeared once i washed those sleepsuits, didn't get established on anything else (likely rarely washed bed linen).

Ie, you usually have to be a bit minging to get moths. So my money is on the washing machine. But stuff wears out naturally, anyway, and washing machines quickly make small holes into bigger ones.

I had this problem & my tops always got holes. I think it was the washing machine...then MIL died & I brought her WM down & the holes stopped.

Zips can also make holes. Do them up before you wash them so they don't chew up your clothes

Really stupid question but do you have a dog?
We had mystery holes appearing at random, tried to blame the washer, eventually realised it was the dogs nails when we clambered on us!

We've got moths and are not minging (the cheek of it). They do like wool so if you have rungs/hangings, woollen clothes they will be happy. Failing that they can live off dust quite easily. Cloths moths do like dark places, they are photophobic. They are on the rise now though due to less toxic pesticides and imports of fabrics and things like baskets from other countries. They are also incredibly hard to get rid of.
In my experience though, they don't bother with cotton, so if you're getting holes in things like cotton shorts I doubt you have clothes moths.
Could you have dropped or splashed bleach on your clothes? That will often lead to fabric perishing.

Oh gawd, I got that wrong, didn't I? I meant to say you'd more likely get moths putting dirty(ish) clothes back in with the clean ones in the (dark) wardrobe. Sorry, I really do have perimenopausal brain. Leaving slightly dirty stuff out in the light is safe ime, for weeks even.

The thing is, we (my household) have minging habits (according to MN) wrt laundry, & we almost never have had moths. Though I strictly segregate slightly dirty from fully clean clothes. Only got moths when I did things like forget for weeks about a sleepsuit baby had worn at breakfast, it got wedged behind some nappies. And as soon as I washed that item, no more moths. Is it because we wear cotton & little wool?

Indoor temp must have some bearing. Our house is on the cold side.

you're spot on though - they love worn clothes as they need the moisture. We sometimes find the odd one perished in the bath - I think they are after the water.
I'm finding it difficult to get rid of them completely, but have stumbled upon one of their strongholds today! An under bed storage unit had a few unwanted guests lurking in there.

Thanks for the replies Well, I think it must be the machine then.

Although DP will re-wear hoodies etc for a few days, he leaves them out on a chair in our bedroom rather than outing them away with clean clothes.

I rarely see moths, i recall seeing them last summer but that was probably when we had windows open at night with it being warm.

Nope, no minging knicker habits in this house and the holes were probably smaller before I put the pants on

Will have to get DP to get his toolbox out and open her up and fish the offending underwire out!