Clothes moths driving me insane - experts needed please!

[Wiifitmama]

We recently discovered a clothes moth infestation in ds3 bedroom. For background, we live in a ground floor flat (one flat above) and have no carpets or rugs anywhere in the entire flat with the exception of ds3 room where there was a synthetic rug. I am quite aware of clothes moths as my mother has persian rugs everywhere and it is always an issue for her in her flat.

We were seeing quite a few moths in ds3 room (one per day, sometimes two) and tracked them down to the rug. I had thought as it was synthetic, it was not a risk but it turns out that they can lay eggs in synthetic fibres so long as there is another food source - in this case dust. The back edge of the rug was along the back edge of his wall under his bunkbed and there was a build up of dust that was not getting hoovered.

As soon as we discovered this, the rug was disposed of out of the house, and his entire rooms was dealt with - hoovered to within an inch of its life including moving all furniture, all clothes went onto 60 degree wash, all stuffed toys went into freezer, curtains and chair were sprayed with moth killer stuff. We have not seen anymore in his room. This was about 9-10 days ago.

However, since then we are still seeing moths elsewhere in the flat. At a rate of about one per day. In random places. Kitchen sometimes, lounge, ds1 room, hallway. As I know that the adults live only 2-3 days, these must be hatching from larvae that are still somewhere.

I have pheromone traps literally all over the flat and in cupboards and they have not trapped a single moth. I have pulled out the couch, examined it closely for damage, even turning it over, and there is nothing. I have examined all of our curtains - nothing. I have put all door mats (all synthetic) through a 60 degree wash. I have sprayed the hallway bench which has a fabric cover with the moth killer spray. I have been into drawers of clothes and looked at them for signs of being eaten - nothing.

Short of removing every item of clothing from every single cupboard and drawer and washing it at 60 - which a lot of them won't take - I have no idea what to do next.

It is making me absolutely crazy!! Please help!!

Noughtpercent I’m not sure what the practical difference is, the moths we have had are equally happy eating a hole in the carpet or in our clothes

@WeeMadArthur

It's to do with how they breed/infest your house and what does the damage.

A carpet beetle (larva of carpet moth also known as a wooly bear) is what does the damage. They will "nest" (For which read "eat") in any natural fibres where they can get to a dark place. So if you have a pile of cotton sheet/clothes left in a pile untouched in the spare room or the crevices of a cotton valance against the wall - this is where they will breed and eat.

The carpet beetle larva does the damage (as compared to the clothes moth that does the damage). It's easier to repel adult moths than it is to de-infest pre-laid larva. That's the difference.

The first sign is usually the cast off shells of the larva which look like tiny dried up versions of this:

bugguide.net/images/raw/KZ1/LIZ/KZ1LIZTLXZBLKZ1LPRQHXZHH2RCLQZLHIZDLMZSHXZ9LHZNLHZ9LZZOL5RTLGRCZYLVLKZOL2RBL5R.jpg

bpca.org.uk/pest-aware/Page-2/carpet-beetle-control-get-rid-of-carpet-beetles-bpca-a-z-of-pests/189174

PS - if you ever wake up in the morning with random tiny red bumps that are itchy on a small area of your body - say just your hand or your ankle - that seems inexplicable, totally strip your bed, turn the mattress and remove any vallence and check it for carpet beetles. The hairs on them are notoriously allergenic and often mistakenly lead people to think they have bed bugs.

siteassets.pagecloud.com/bedbugs/downloads/Carpet_Beetle_Information_Current_Version-ID-181f1054-a54d-43a0-8929-760738af5e24.pdf

Hmm dust is interesting

I got them last year and presumed it was from a woolen carpet so we changed it to synthetic / used traps and sprays .

Hadn't seen them for months and just seen two over the last week in a different room . Also in a flat . Need to start trapping again .

Thanks @NoughtpercentAPR interestingly, although I have seen loads of carpet moths and carpet moth caterpillars ( the small white with coloured head things) plus the little cocoons they make I have only seen one or two of the carpet moth shells, and wondered what they were. It’s horrifying to think we have more than one type to kill.

Get the professionals in. They can fumigate with moth killing spray and also put all your clothes in a heated tent to kill the larvae in them. Only thing that sorted ours.

I’ve been battling with them for years and have spent a small fortune trying to eradicate them. The only things that work for me are the heavy duty spray and the smoke bomb things. Easy to do and keeps them at bay for a while.

I spent hundreds of £ dry cleaning clothes years ago but it didn’t seem to make a difference.

They are bastards.

Thanks everyone for your ideas. I am still crazy moth lady in our house. However, some progress I think. The number of moths we were seeing increased over the last two days and have all been in the same area - by our hallway cupboard (coat cupboard) and ds1's room (right next to it). So I decided the infestation is in one of the other.

We have pheromone traps in both places but nothing. I went back to amazon last night and read reviews. It seems whatever brand I looked at (including the two I have) have about 60-70% which say great and the rest which says the moths fly past and ignore them. I think sadly ours are in that percent that the moths are ignoring. I have two more brands arriving from amazon today to try.

In the meantime, between work hours, I have emptied the coat cupboard and am working my way through washing everything (or spraying those that cannot be washed). I did find some dead moths at the bottom and the source seems to be hessian bags! We keep a bunch of those shopping bags in there (big hessian ones as well as smaller cotton ones - way too many). Quite a few of the hessian ones looked eaten. I saw no larvae (but I am not sure if they are too small to see) but I did see dead moths. So, all except one are now thrown out. The one I needed to keep has been sprayed to within an inch of its life and the cotton bags are all in the wash. Everything else in the cupboard is being washed for precaution (though no evidence of damage) and I have wiped and sprayed the whole cupboard including the wellies!

Tomorrow we are tackling DS1's bedroom. He is seeing moths in there each day which could be from the hallway as there are right next to each other or he may have an infestation of his own.

Yes, I have heard that hessian bags are very much enjoyed by moths.
I threw ours out.
I keep seeing the odd moth around the house, so I keep hoovering and spraying.
It is exhausting.

Carpet beetles are not a type of moth, they are beetles. Small dark beetles, with hairy little caterpillar type larvae, the “woolly bears” .

Clothes moths might nibble hessian if it had food traces on it.

These are the traps I have used, they definitely attract clothes moths.
www.planetorganic.com/mottlock-for-clothes-moths/15821/

Stick some worn socks on the carpet in the cupboard and check daily for the caterpillars, they verge from tiny to grain of rice size so are really hard to spot in the carpet. It’s easier with plain dark socks. I was squeamish at first but now I take grim satisfaction in squashing them.

They can’t stand lavender oil and it seems to kill the eggs. My mum had to repeatedly scrub her carpets with a solution of it, took a few weeks but got rid of them eventually.
She regularly sprays the carpets and curtains with a mister of it now in season and they haven’t returned.
She loves animals, bugs and beasties but it was getting ridiculous.

We have no carpet in our cupboard! We have no carpet anywhere at all in fact.

Very interesting about the lavender oil. If we ever get rid of the moths, I will use some as a way of deterring them from coming back.

@Nighttimenope I hope you don't mind me asking you a few more questions about your experience!

We are still battling. After the first instance I detailed on here of my youngest ds bedroom and the rug, I then tackled the hallway cupboard (as detailed on here we found them in the hessian bags) top to bottom. Everything sprayed, cleaned and in vacuum plastic bags now. The next day we did DS1's bedroom which is right next door and we had seen many in there. We found that one of the drawers of his wardrobe (freestanding) had a bowed bottom which opened to the back. When we emptied that drawer (which had a cushion in it) moths flew out. So his whole room was done top to bottom. Literally everything and every corner. Washed, sprayed etc.

This was Friday last week. Since then, we are continuing to see them in very random places - kitchen ceiling, living room (which we also sprayed all furniture and curtains which are the only fabric things in there), bathtub (!). In the last two days I swear there has been an increase in sightings. I have killed 5 today in different places. Most worrying was one tonight back in the original bedroom.

We have moth pheromone traps everywhere. The ones inside cupboards have caught nothing. The ones free standing on the floors have caught a couple - not many.

So, in your experience, did this happen to you too? Is it just that we have disturbed them all and they are popping up (we kill each one and we are very vigilant in looking for them!). Or do I take this as a sign that we are doomed?

Weirdest thing is that I keep seeing them outside our front door. I am sure they are the same kinds of moth. Everything I read says they do not come in from outside but are transferred onto clothing from one person to another (on the tube, visiting houses etc). So why have I got them outside????

This is seriously depressing me!

You have my sympathies! It’s been two
years since I had this so my memory of timescales isn’t reliable but as a general pattern this all sounds very similar to our experience!! It took a while for our traps to take effect.. I remember when they did we used to get excited whenever another moth landed! Displacement and seeing them everywhere and random killings- definitely. Seeing them outside also. It doesn’t sound to me like you’ve lost the war quite yet 😊 maybe what you could do to save yourself the doubts is call in a pest guy to have a look. We didn’t do that but SIL did and he confirmed they were clothes moths for her. I’m not sure if they had to pay for him to come out just to assess, but they prob figured it was worth a small fee regardless as they had to use a laundrette for their clothes/bedding etc plus considering the traps and sprays it can all add up. for you. Moths are the worst! We had ants in the summer after the moths.. one night of laying a powder down and problem sorted 🙄 different kettle of fish altogether!

Thanks so much for your reply! We may have had a break through (or not!). DS1 noticed one on his towel in the bathroom (which he had of course put on the floor rather than hanging up while he was in the shower. We have had a number of sightings in the bathroom but assumed they are flying in there as there is nothing in there for them to nest in (we don't store towels in there and any towels we use are washed weekly at 60). We have a hole in the corner of the room behind the door where there should be skirting or door frame or something. Lazy builders just left it open. He thinks they are coming-out from there. I have sprayed loads of spray down there and dh will block it at the weekend. Who knows if this is correct but seems like a definite possibility. Google says they can live under floorboards. The bathroom is tiled obviously but there is certainly a void underneath.

So sorry for your problem. My dad had a problem like that and also lived in a flat. However, the cashmere sweater that he had for a present was the source. Cashmere is often in various woollen garments. I never buy anything with it in if I can help it.