Moths

[MariscallRoad]

The lounge carpet has huge holes everywhere, it is 100% wool. Not a square foot without holes the size of 20p and 50p. There is a patch under the PC tower which is entirely eaten up. I had installed the carpet 22 years ago but in the last 2 years moths were at it. The moths hadeaten the carpet under the furniture and under some rugs, which have been perforated and their wool pulverised. I suddenly realised the rugs looked strange. I kept my jumpers wrapped in pillows and in drawers in the dark but were invaded too. I discovered several moths flattering yesterday the size of beetles - never seen that before. I put net curtains on the windows and tucked them safely but moths found their way in during the night when the lights are on! Seems I need screens.

The rooms with synthetic carpets are OK.

Do you know any method to keep moths out?

you need lots and lots of hoovering, especially behind and under furniture and along skirtings, preferably with an upright vac that beats the eggs out. Your old carpet will go in the skip. Spray round the edges where they climb underneath.

All your clothes and fabrics need to go through the tumble-drier, and be immediately sealed into plastic crates with tight lids, or big clear plastic bags taped shut. if you leave them lying round for a bot they will get reinfested. Even if they have not been washed, the heat will kil eggs and larvae. Use the big one at the laundrette.

You are going to have to use chemicals containing Transfluthrin. Read the labels to check. The small cardboard impregnated ones, put one in each bag and crate, and one in every drawer. The plastic hangers, put a couple in every wardrobe or cupboard. for example

If you do "Advanced Search" "moths" you will find all this has been said before.

You can also get scented cedar and lavender things. They don't kil moths but will make your holey clothes smell nice as tiy throw them in the bin.

You will have to keep up the vacuuming and moth-killers for a year before you can ease off. But once you have had a bad infestation, you will continue to use the wardrobe hangers. Do not put clothes that have been worn by a woman back in the wardrobe, moths follow the scent. If you ever buy old vintage clothes, put them through the tumble drier before allowing them into your house. If you ever buy an old rug, spray it.

It may be that you are not yet convinced about the seriousness of the infesration and don't want to use chemicals. Come back when you have changed your mind.

Really piglet? God this is depressing. We have hundreds of tiny moths. Still haven't found any discernible damage though, holes in a few jumpers which could have been anything. Am bit scared of mothballs as we have a toddler but have a few in high cupboards.

Had to laugh at 'but they'll make your clothes smell nice as u throw them out'.

Could they be coming from the garden? Or floorboards?

We have no tumble dryer- ideas? Or do I have to bring everything to laundrette? What about sunshine?

I really think the laundrette drier will be best for you. As the clothes are not wet it will not be terribly expensive. The packing away and sealing immediately is to prevent your clothes getting reinfested after you have killed all the grubs and eggs. Don't be in any hurry to unpack them as you presumably have a lot of eggs and hatching adults in the house and it will take time to get teh population down You can get pheromone traps which are handy for indicating the size of population, though they will never catch them all, the klllers are better for eradication.

You will be cleaning, hoovering and spraying your drawers and wardrobes while they are empty. There may be eggs in the joints or nooks, although I believe they are usually laid on fibres.

The Transfluthrin emits very small amounts of vapour over a period of months, which degrades from sunlight, rain and fresh air, so it works in a closed container or wardrobe, but does not permeate a room. So the tumbling will quickly kill anything present, and the moth killers will protect them in storage. Otherwise you may open a container of winter jumpers and have a flock of moths, or a lump of web, come out. It is very effective and clean in use. the plastic hangers have an impregnated piece of carboard inside, I suppose a dog could chew it open but they are designed to be safe. The chemical is considered to be much safer than older insecticides, and works at a very low concentration. It is the only thing I know of that is really good at defeating moths, as it kills the adults, larvae and eggs, over time. i think it is especially good in the plastic crates as you can put away out-of-season clothes. If you have any expensive or favourite woollens, put them in a large plastic bag with a moth killer. You can get very large clear bags as "recycling sacks" near the bin-liner shelf

p.s.

If you have a old house, there may be woollen felt insulation on pipes in the loft or under floarboards, I have heard moths can live on these though I don't think I've ever seen it, and I have seen a lot of old pipes. Modern pipe lagging is plastic foam.

You may also have brown felt carpet underlay.

If there are any old rugs, carpets or wedding dresses in the loft, they are probably infested. Bag up anything before you carry it down, and hoover well. I think I have heard of moths coming into the loft if birds or squirrels get in and nest. Before people had clothes, moths used to live on animal fur.

Thank u piglet! We have a pheromone trap which is one big minging piece of dead moths... So guess measures this drastic are necessary! I have some time next week so will plan to do it then

Thanks piglet I had not realised the scale of the problem. I have a wardrobe lined with cedar and I use lavender sachets and oil but does not work. I have blankets in a wooden pine chest, these are OK. My carpets are woolen in about half the flat and they have to be thrown away as they are infested, I am never going to put woolen floor covers again. The damage is under the furniture mostly and this I could not see. The house is victorian with many nooks and cracks. I intend to scrap the infested woollen carpets and install bamboo floor or laminate. Do you think steam cleaning the carpet will kill the grabs and eggs? I have bought a steam cleaner. I also thought of getting a fridge or freezer to store the delicate woolens there. Winter does not kill the moths. They ve become so fat and when the flap their wings they make bigger noise than ever before. I wonder if that is a new species mutated.

Hoovering and steam cleaning will keep the numbers down, but not to zero.

Transfluthrin chemical killers in your clothes boxes, drawers and wardrobes will protect the clothes, but you need a real blitz at the beginning to intensively remove and kill them. Spraying round the edges of the carpets will kill the ones hiding under the skirting boards.

When I was dealing with an infested house (not mine) I moved all the furniture to vacuum the floor thoroughly, and turned beds, rugs and sofas (they usually contain wool padding) upside down, then sprayed all round the carpets and the underneath of all the beds, sofas and armchairs, and left the room for a couple of hours with the doors and windows closed. The spray is a different chemical and will kill insects on contact. The instructions usually say keep pets and children away until it has dried. I reckon that the thorough spraying would kill all the live ones, and repeated frequent hoovering and edge spraying would catch the ones that hatched subsequently. If you have a serious infestation you should assume there are eggs everywhere, even in the airing cupboard and the cupboard under the stairs, so your initial vacuuming and spraying has to be intense. I recommend tumbling and crating or bagging all your clothes so they will be protected until you have cleared the infestation. It can take a week or so for the Transfluthrin to build up inside the wardrobes and drawers. The costs of a man's suit, or a nice dress, ruined by moths will far outweigh the cost of the mothproofers. If all your clothes and blankets are damages the cost and inconvenience is traumatic

The Transfluthrin appears to be supplied in small packages, specifically so that the tiny amount of vapour released will only protect the unventilated box, drawer or wardrobe that it is in, and will not be circulating in the room in significant amounts, so it will not kill moths or anything else in the rest of the house. The vapour breaks down in sunlight or rain, and is dispersed by ventilation.

Once you've got to grips with it, it is easy to pop a moth killer in with your winter woolies or your spare blankets when you put them away, and put one in each drawer or cupboard every few months, even when you think the problem is solved. Write the date on the moth killer so you know when it has expired. They are not smelly like old mothballs.

Incidentally, I noticed that the some of the moth sprays contain Cypermethrin. They work out fairly expensive if you are spraying the insides or wardrobes, and the edges of carpets.

for example and here

I noticed that you can get the same chemical in a spray for ants and crawling insects spray# more cheaply in a trigger-spray in various high-street shops and supermarkets. If you happen to suspect an ant or crawling insect problem, I suppose you would be entitled to use such a spray against them. It is probably unsuitable for clothes.