Clothes/Carpet Moths...help me plan my attack

[Mothspleaseflitoff]

We moved into a rented flat last year, it's a very old converted building, and has carpet in most rooms. Before we moved in, we hoovered and used a vax carpet cleaner, it was a bit dusty as no one had lived in it for about a year. While we were doing this, I noticed a couple of patches where the carpet was a bit bare, figured it was just old and thought nothing more of it.

I've noticed some very small cream moths (same colour as the carpet) on the walls recently, again didn't think much of it, thought they must have flown in.

Started doing a declutter of my wardrobe today, and found about 8 of the little flitters on my clothes!! Googled it and they look like clothes moths (which are the same as carpet moths apparently). DP is totally unfazed by them, but I'm so grossed out! The idea that they might have laid eggs in my clothes makes me just feel itchy!

Does anyone have any tips or product recommendations on evicting them?!

No advice but I think I have same problem. Have seen 2 or 3 a week for the last month or so. But I live in a modern building and have not brought any old carpets or knitwear into my property so where do they come from?

Maybe weather conditions have been right for them this year?

Go to Lakeland and buy all the chemicals. Cedarwood hangers will help too. Vacuum every corner of your wardrobe and everywhere else, and your clothes as well. Give clothes a good shape before putting them in the wardrobe and preferably only put newly clean clothes in there. They will eat your natural fibres! My favourite skirt was munched upon by moths brought in on a tie DH inherited from his grandpa. Itching is the least problematic element!

*shake not shape. I'm sure your clothes are already cut excellently

Follow all the advice above. And you need to clean everywhere - and I mean everywhere. Include the places you might not think of, like the tops of curtains and behind furniture. Zero In do a good moth-killer spray, which I've found to be effective - you spray it into the air and then leave the room for a while with the door closed. Don't breathe when you do the spraying, and run away fast. Get some airtight plastic storage bags for some of your clothes - these are useful for the stuff you don't wear so often. Have a really good look at that carpet, especially around the edges. Get some moth traps (coated sticky paper things) - these really work, and they're also useful as an indication of how bad the problem is. Good luck - I feel for you. Every so often I have another outbreak, and my heart really sinks with the knowledge of all the extra work - and money: the anti-moth products aren't cheap.

Glad to know I'm not alone! I'm having a late spring clean as the flat has got progressively messier and messier over lockdown turns out I really need the fear of visitors to keep it tidy and sorting out my clothes was the last job...not now!

Just looked at the worn looking bits of carpet with my phone torch, and can see what look like teeny tiny eggs (not envy). Currently researching chemicals, tempted to kill them with fire.

What look like eggs are probably moth poo OP.

@Choux still googling and apparently they can get in through the smallest of gaps, fly in through open windows, through vents and holes in the building, and down chimneys .

@ThePlantsitter writing a shopping list for chemicals right now. Sorry about your skirt.

@Time40 yeah so far it looks like there's not a quick and cheap fix! Will move furniture around tomorrow.

@SirVixofVixHall

I think the teeny tiny things probably ARE eggs ... and you often find eggs in clumps, with white silky stuff around them. Oh god, I hate this problem, I really do. I so deeply wish clothes moths didn't exist. The moth population is on the rise, because winters are warmer, and because most houses have central heating now, and are better insulated. The cold used to kill them off in the winter ... which is an additional tip: apparently, you can kill off moth eggs if you put your clothes in the freezer for a few days. I've never done it, mainly because I've never had enough space in my freezer for more than one garment. And another thing: they eat fabric, but what they most like is dirty fabric - they eat body oils and skin flakes, etc, so never put seasonal clothes away unwashed.

Feel your pain op!!! I vote for the Pest Expert moth killer kit. Comes with a powder, spray, traps and a fumigator (too scared to use that personally)

The powder is good, I sprinkled around the entire indoor perimeter of the flat, left for 48 hours then hoovered...the spray is good too, but potent. The kit comes with a mask luckily. And the traps attract the moths and also help you guage how bad the problem is!!

Really really hate them, they ruin everything. Cedar balls are good for drawers too!

@Time40

I think the teeny tiny things probably ARE eggs ... and you often find eggs in clumps, with white silky stuff around them. Oh god, I hate this problem, I really do. I so deeply wish clothes moths didn't exist. The moth population is on the rise, because winters are warmer, and because most houses have central heating now, and are better insulated. The cold used to kill them off in the winter ... which is an additional tip: apparently, you can kill off moth eggs if you put your clothes in the freezer for a few days. I've never done it, mainly because I've never had enough space in my freezer for more than one garment. And another thing: they eat fabric, but what they most like is dirty fabric - they eat body oils and skin flakes, etc, so never put seasonal clothes away unwashed.

Oh and yes, freezing does work! When we moved we washed all cotton stuff at 60+ to kill any eggs, but delicates that can't take high heat were frozen (i.e. wool and silk which they LOVE were frozen for 48 hours then washed on their normal delicate cycle)

Eggs are incredibly tiny. If you see white silky stuff that is cocoons, the grubs that hatch out start very tiny indeed, gradually get fatter on your cashmere, then form a cocoon and metamorphose. If you can see little balls on bald areas, that is poo from the grubs.
Yes freezing works, three days in a freezer. I find the Mottlock traps the most effective sticky traps. I don’t use pesticides in the house at all, so I am fighting a constant battle with moths .

If you are renting and there is an infestation in your house, your landlord should be informed and pay and arrange for the house to be treated.

I had to do this when a previous tenant of my mother's flat (she was in a care home) left a house full of fleas.

Wool carpets are a nightmare sadly. If the place is treated or the carpets replaced, then you can spray the cupboards, and hang up moths traps. But while the carpets are infested it will be impossible to keep your clothes safe.

I have found my people. I've had cedar/lavender hanging things everywhere and thought I had thwarted the bastards until I moved furniture and found bald patches of carpet.

I've tried to put much of the advice above into practice and have been vacuuming thoroughly everywhere almost every day. My house has never been so clean. I also have sticky traps in the bedrooms and linen cupboard - apparently they only attract male moths, so they slow down the reproduction cycle rather than stop it dead. I'm heartened by the fact that I'm trapping fewer moths every day.

I'm focusing on the carpets (yes, wool), but know that I need to go through clothes again. We live in an old house and there have been moths here since the day we moved in. I'm aiming for control rather than elimination.