Clothes moths

[CVLB]

I am pretty sure we have a clothes moths problem. First noticed around 18 months ago and have been unable to get rid of them since I hardly ever see moths flying, might have seen about 10 in the time since I first noticed my munched tops. Holes are always at the front bottom of the garment.

The problem seems to be only with my clothes, apart from one t shirt of my husband. I have hot washed all of my clothes, frozen clothes that can't be hot washed, have lavender hangers in wardrobe, moths traps (nothing caught at all). I thought I had solved the problem so dared to by a new t shirt about a month ago, which had two holes in this morning when I put it on. So frustrating!!

The house was occupied by an elderly person before we moved in, very thin carpets with no underlay. All carpets have been ripped up now and we have hard wood flooring throughout now.

So, back to the moth problem, I think I am going to have to try smoke bombs to rid the problem. Had anyone tried these before? My husband is concerned about the damage that might be done to our furnishings from the fumes. It says in the blurb no damage will be done but hoping someone might have tried them. Did they work? Are there any other tips you might have?

TIA

Call your local pest control officer at the Council. Are you in the south east? Apparently clothes/carpet moths are a big problem there.

Yes, we are in the south east. My mum also has then so would agree, a big problem here

Will try pest control, thanks!

We had an real problem with clothes and carpets being attacked. Tried cedar balls, lavender pouches, pheromone traps, crawling insect powder and sprays, all helped a little but problem remained so decided to go a little more heavyweight.

Carpets I had used a salt spray to prevent insect damage on a DIY job and had some left over. It's a salt and harmless to humans but insects don't like salt added to their food in this case it stops them digesting their food and they starve to death. I used Boron Ultra 12 I dissolved it in water popped it into a hand sprayer, ( I wore a mask just to be extra safe) turned my carpet over dampened bottom and edges, left to dry overnight then repeated treatment for other end of carpet. Moths are gone from carpet forever as salt just sits there on fibres and will kill any new attack. Cheap safe and effective.

Cloths moths, these still remained after dealing with carpet so I went industrial and ordered £100 of cedar of Lebanon planks and put them everywhere we had clothes and under furniture in rooms we had not treated with Boron . The 20 four foot long and 4 inch wide planks was the equivalent to hundreds of packs of cedar balls and I've not seen a moth since . The pleasant smell of the wood kills moths. If the smell ever lowers you only need to lightly sand the wood to expose fresh aromatic layers

If the holes are always in the same place it may not be moths. I've seen threads on here before where posters have noticed holes at the bottom of tops and t shirts. I'm not sure a consensus was ever reached, but some people suggested it may have been to do with tops getting caught on buttons or worktops.

It’s not a moth problem, it will be where you wear particular pairs of trousers and the button or zip rubs the top and wears holes in it. Do you spend a lot of time driving (where the seatbelt will rub), or leaning against worktops etc?

The holes are all very much in the same place, front of tops near the hem. I had considered it might be my jeans or seatbelt, but I did an experiment on a brand new top, worn once, which had two holes appear. I sealed it into a sandwich bag, left it for a week and when I took it out, it had 15 holes! So I can safely assume i have moth problem!!

Thank you for the tips, I will try the salt water on the remaining carpet we have (recently laid wood floors in all rooms) and will definitely buy some cedar planks for under the bed, in wardrobes, etc. Thank you!

I'm just at the end of my tether as it's only my clothes which are being eaten

I don't think this is moths I think this is where the tops come in contact with hard buttons. A lot of my tops, especially jersey fabrics, have small holes at waist height. This is where I lean against the work surfaces and the buttons on my trousers/jeans rub against the edge through the bottom of my top, creating small holes!

Moths are not that selective and have eaten in many places on the odd occasion I've had them get to my clothes.

Have you tried mothballs?

I have washed/frozen all my clothes and I have a selection of Acana products - moth killer spray, moth killer sachets, moth killer wardrobe hangers.

I know what you mean about the holes being in the same place and could be caused by clothes rubbing, but that doesn't explain how one top got lots of extra holes whilst sealed in a bag (my experiment!). That to me can only mean moths, but I don't understand why the holes are all in the same place