Moths have eaten my winter coat! How do I get rid of them?

[ellehcim]

NOT happy. Have just taken out my winter coat and a lovely thick woolen dress only to find holes which I'm guessing must be moth holes. Had it dry cleaned before putting it in the cupboard to prevent this happening but that obviously doesn't work!

I know traditional moth balls are toxic and mustn't be used when you have children. Are there any other solutions? Do cedar balls work?

i thought moths were attracted to grease on clothes....so that shouldnt have happened if dry cleaned
am sorry
would be devastated if this happened!

it happened to a sweater of mine
sorry no useful foolproof advice

We had this (still do) and have tried everything, including the dreaded moth balls that DP tried to poison us with. Cedar balls are a bit ususells ,as are most of those sachets you can buy. Tons of cloves placed in bowls seemed to work for a while but then they came back.

In the end we took all of the tasty wool items out of our wardrobe, put each one in the freezer for a 72 hr stint (kills the eggs), then got this spray thing that isn't too toxic and sprayed all the hangers and drawers before going out for the day. So far this seems to have worked. Am interested in hearing other people's solutions, so will be watching this with interest.

We have been plagued with them since we moved to this flat - apparently it it's a phenomenon of the house/street!

They liked our carpets, and since we ripped them out and got new ones it's been better. You may never get rid of them - you just have to keep on top of it. Their life cycle is about 3 weeks in summer, longer in winter, so if you shift things around, hoover under furniture and shake out winter coats etc every 3 weeks or so that will help. I hang my winter coats out in the sun regularly in the summer. I hate chemical sprays, but since the expensive new carpets have been using 'Protector C' which i got from an online pest control co. (Reminds me I need to do it..) I use this under the bed and places where I know they liked before - dark, undisturbed areas. Because it is supposed to only last for 3 weeks I'm hoping it won't have any long lasting effects on the children or pets. Use according to the instructions of course...

Funnily (or not) enough, I have just found their white tunnels in the felt bottom of our knives and forks drawer. Some things never get touched though - it's just bad luck when it's your best coat...