More moths than is natural

[ark]

I'm at the end of my tether have lavender and cedarwood all over the place but I've still got moths all over the place. Is it really wrong to nuke em? All suggestions desperately recieved including cheap ways to nuke the evils critters. FYI They are the silver clothes eating variety!

euch I hate them! Our flat is overrun with them - we never had them before we moved here.

For some reason they were ok last year - but they seem to be reappearing this time around... goodbye cardigans, don't cry for me my pashmina...

anything that allows itself to be squashed with such ease is clearly wrong wrong wrong!

that's weird, we've had more than usual round here recently.

I'm battling them too. Large patch of carpet gone before I noticed. I have now spent circa:

300 quid on three pest control visits from two different firms

150 quid on drycleaning (I also have some of my clothes in various friends' freezers as this apparently kills the eggs too)

65 quid on mothballs, special zip up plastic storage bags to keep my clothes in, traps, sprays, blah blah blah.

I have millions of those pheromone traps all round the place which the moths are supposed to be attracted to but which they completely ignore. To catch them you have to go up and actually place the trap on them.

They don't really bother me except for the damage. But I'm about to give up. I don't see what else I can do. Anyone got any other ideas?

not that I've been googlingthis too much but yes apparently so! I'm wondering if rug doctor carpet cleaning or some such might start the whole thing off? Or if you actually need to get some pest controller in - seems drastic given they only eat cashmere.

m & j I now feel like I winge - large patch of carpet would moving house be too drastic?

Ha! I'm seriously considering it but I fear I would just be taking the moths with me since everything I own is clearly riddled with pestilence

We have suffered the devils for about 2yrs now and have lost loads of knitwear to them....
I have moth traps in every room which I buy on e-bay. They are a sticky strip which is coated with something they are drawn to! They catch alot of the buggers

I also steam my clothes a couple of times a year with a wallpaper stripper......... I know I sound obsessed and over the top but when you have lost as many clothes as I have you become desperate!

Also store anything delicate or not in regular use in storage or vacum bags.

Sadly in my experience
once you have them its almost if not impossible to get rid of them

they don't only eat cashmere! Or at least mine don't. They will eat literally anything from wool carpet to wool-polyester mix jumpers (I can only assume they spit out the acrylic).

They also nest in and attempt to chew anything that looks or feels like wool eg anything knitted or fleece, whether it's made of cotton, nylon, acrylic, polyester, lycra or whatever.

And they leave their horrid speckly eggs and nasty wriggling maggots lying everywhere.

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrg.

right so I haven't found the maggots /larve whatever yet - I figue if I do then so much the better! Just these flying things all over the shop! I only squash them because it gives me satisfaction I can only presume its too late at that point! Good advice re steaming clothes and is making me wonder about steam in general....

Apparently they are breeding more often because of global warming. We have lost all woolen clothes and two carpets before we realised the extent of the problem. Our flat is really crowded and the the cupboard was really stuffed with clothes which doesn't help.DP and i have moved to a wool free capsule wardrobe but you still get horrible track marks on things

pesky creatures but i won't use chemicals so we're screwed

Yes I was saying no chemicals but as I'm back at square 1 I now feel 'nuke em!' Thank god I'm not a nuclear power or anything!

When I eventually found the patch of carpet (it was behind the bedside table, which doesn't get moved even for hoovering) I could see all the horrid eggs and maggoty things.

But now that that lot are all dead (blasted with something vicious from the pest control company), I've just got the flying ones and I've no idea where they've settled - and nor has the moth man who has become one of my best friends. He has been round to my flat 4 times - twice to assess and twice to treat. If even he can't work it out then I'm buggered.

Have I mentioned that he also came three times to treat the effing, blinding mice?

Foulness everywhere

crikey margo you are more persistent than me.

I have thrown away most of my jumpers and am attempting (v unsuccessfully) to learn to love the sodding bastards local wildlife

M & J do you live next door? If so you missed off the pigeons!

I had to queue in John Lewis for their latest consignment of cedarwood. Is it possible that this part of london is flooded with moths! It might swing my vote for mayoral election if there were some policy
on this.

My sister lives in Newcastle and their council pay for pest control not bleedin hammersmith and fulham no you must suffer alone! Yes I'm getting drammatic!

I think I've just become obsessed, after the mouse infestation. Had to move out as there were three or four of them running around the living room of an evening. Absolutely ugh.

No sooner had the mice gone than the moths arrived. Feel like the old lady who swallowed a fly

But I think I am also going to have to learn to live with the little freaks. I fear mrbojangles is right - they're with me for life now

I'm in Westminster and they also do not care...but what's worse is that they don't care about the mice either. From what I hear from my pest control friend, every single solitary restaurant in my area (central London) is infested . And I can believe it. If they reach my flat (fourth floor) they're sure as hell in the ground floor restaurants.

I know I'm making light of it but there is something about it that makes me feel dirty - like I don't clean enough or something. I have an overactive imagination and now I'm dreaming about them! I can't believe its moths for the rest of my life! THere must be an answer.

I want to spray our place although at the moment they seem content with just the carpet

ark I've come to the conclusion it's a bit like nits - if they're in your area you probably have to resign yourself to regular visits but in the meantime you just have to make their lives as damn uncomfortable as possible.

Hoover everywhere, particularly in spring which is when they start to hatch (there's a lot to be said for our grandmothers' concept of spring cleaning), take your woolens out and shake them every few weeks, disturb curtains and any cushions that have woolen stuffing, generally try not to leave any corners where they can get comfortable and lay eggs.

Also get good at spotting the pre-moth signs. I am fanatical about checking for eggs (run your hand along the bottom of your jumper draw or wherever you have an infestation - you will probably feel little gritty things a bit like fine sand - these are the eggs) and when I spot them I pounce before they can hatch.

I find my fanatical zeal to destroy all moth-kind makes the job more bearable!

Good advice - I go forth with a mission to rid the flat of the blighters once more! If I come accross any wonderous discoveries I shall report back!

PS I am London too - I have lived in Sussex, Manchester and Paris and never saw a single moth.

Moved to London - had a huge infestation within a couple of years.

My sister was exactly the same, she moved to the same area as me and got them straight away.