Me v the moths

[HollyhockDays]

We have moths. I’ve done a wet vacuum and dry vacuum. I’ve spring cleaned the wardrobe today and the airing cupboard. I can’t move all of the furniture (too heavy). I’ve used a carpet spray and have traps out. Cedar things ordered for wardrobe along with some protective bags. If I see any I zap them with the Dyson.

Is there anything else I can do??

The only thing that worked for us was getting rid of all the wool carpets! Sorry to say.

https://amzn.eu/d/05WLpcFy

These are very good (and cheap / eco friendly(ish) paper)
I have used them a lot, as well as hoovering and even steaming the wool carpets - which we will be shot of when we've finally finished redecorating!

OMG.

We were about to replace some carpets but I said we needed to get on top of this first!

I fear that if you have wool carpets, you will never get on top of it. Unless you can move and clean behind and under all furniture a couple of times a week, there will always be more eggs hatching than you are destroying. Once your lovely carpets go and you replace them with nasty plastic ones, the moths will go - they may have a go at your stored and undisturbed towels and other fabrics before they move on, but it's your woollens they really want.

I had a plague of moths years ago and had loads of traps. Then one morning I noticed a moth crawling through a gap in the door to the under stairs cupboard…..coming out the cupboard. So I cleared the cupboard out and in the dark recesses found a hessian bag crawling with moth larvae. You need to find the source. Look in dark places, under sofas, beds, in cupboards. Think which room you see them in the most?

We only got a handle on this when we ripped out our wool carpets and replaced with synthetic. Also binned all our wicker.

Crikey! This is alarming. We found the source a while back (old rug) and have been treating since then. The thought of replacing all the carpet (even thought it’s ancient) is alarming and would cost a fortune…

We got a pest control team in to spray our carpets a couple of years ago and although I don’t want to
tempt fate, we haven’t seen them since…

Yes. I’ve been googling pest control.

Borrow some cats to eat the moths!

Read up on sex pheromones solutions for moths. Sticky pads are useful.only temporarily. Someone I used to work with told me once that he had similar issue to yours. He used some tablets but I can't remember the company he recommended. Those tablets with pheromones were messing up with how males were attracted to females.

Moth Out are the best sticky pheromone traps. You can send them samples to identify too.

The life cycle is something crazy like 3 years for eggs. I inherited mine from my Mother 5 years ago and still battling even without fitted carpets and regularly deep freezing items.

Absolutely determined to eradicate them.

Don’t forget to throw the hoover bag out each time you use it otherwise they just hatch from there… hence five year battle.

We get pantry moths they’re a pest. But they can come from the shop where you get the food from so I have to wipe packaging down down when I get home before putting away. We get bats in the garden so we must live in an area where there’s plenty of moths for them to eat. Did find a large hawk moth once. Managed to get it out a window.

You need to start with the micro wasps from somewhere like Dragonfli - lots of places do them but I can vouch for them as a repeat customer.

dragonfli.co.uk/collections/clothes-moths

We had a serious moth problem, probably thanks to a rug someone brought back from holiday. Didn’t really notice until too late and they’d wrought havoc on my woollens 😭
We had several rounds with pest companies and the moths just came back. I started freezing clothes to kill the eggs and now anything I value is stored in moth-proof bags (Lakeland do great ones).

Then the tiny wasps. They’re basically invisible but they fly out of the little sachet provided and kill the eggs. You can also get the pheromone traps to catch the adult males, who then can’t breed.

We noticed a dramatic reduction in the moth problem after using the wasp sachets. We’ve carried on ordering them intermittently and now I’d say the problem is largely under control - maybe not 100% eliminated, but heading there.

BTW the carpet thing - we also had to replace our wool carpets but couldn’t bear to have entirely synthetic, so chose a wool blend that’s supposed to be very moth-resistant. They still had a go at it. What they don’t seem to eat is fibre like coir, seagrass etc, which is odd.

Good luck @HollyhockDays. It’s 😣

That is fascinating @cedilla thanks!

Thanks @Cedillajust ordered ‘your’ wasps.

I hope you see some reduction in the moths, @stayathomegardener. I can’t say it was instantaneous for us but after maybe 4 or 5 repeat orders we’re a year or so down the line and very definitely noticing a major improvement. I have a small handheld hoover, like a car hoover, to swoop on any resting moths I see (one of the pest-control blokes recommended that, a good tip actually) and I've hardly had to use it at all this summer.

Cedar things etc are useless.

I eliminated moths by spraying carpets and the inside of wardrobes and drawers (having emptied them) with ZERO IN spray, putting their moth killer papers in all wardrobes and drawers in no less than the recommended amount for the space, and putting the pheromone traps in all wardrobes, coat cupboards, behind the sofa etc. I used generic pheromone traps off the internet once I had enough plastic holders , and they can also be blu-tacked to walls in places stuff won't get stuck to them - e.g on the inside roof of a wardrobe, wall behind sofa, underside of sofa

You have to do everything all at once and keep it up for a year.

But I got rid of a bad infestation.

If you weren’t getting the wasps I’d suggest diatomaceous earth round the edges of carpets and furniture. After a military hoovering campaign and lots of DE we still get the occasional moth but no new damage (that I’ve seen yet). Planning to go to wood floors when the carpet finally gets binned.

I was very tempted by this as a way to keep my wool carpets, but then I read so may reports of people who has eliminated moths only for them to return a year later. I think it was Kirstie Allsop, but it may have been another minor celebrity who had this happen. Seriously consider getting rid of the carpets - I wouldn't consider it until I realised it was the only way.