Help meee! Tiny brown moths in bedroom! 😬

[Starfish83]

They’ve suddenly appeared, seemingly from nowhere!! How do I get rid of them? Really worried they’re going to eat my clothes! 😭 x

They sound like carpet moths OP, you need to look closely at your carpet to see if there's any evidence.

If it is those, you need to have it treated professionally to get rid. A precious employer of mine had carpet moths.

You need to get a professional in ASAP. They’ll gas them

Eek! Thanks Cuppa and Gerbi! Any idea how much a professional moth slayer will cost? x

You can buy sprays i had some. They were eating my old teddy bear

Thanks nitgel - tell me more! Did the spray work? 🤞🏼

I would bag up your clothes and put them in the freezer for 48hrs.
Start with the wool / silk items because moths only eat natural fibres.
(This might take some time if you have a lot of clothes)
You need to keep the frozen clothes away from the infected area until you are moth free.
Good luck!

I had them, bought some treatment stuff online.

Black and red canisters, one to spray the carpet, one to has the room.

Bit of a process

Little brown moths, and the eggs looked like little rice grains,

We moved all the furniture so we could treat underneath book cases/sofas etc.

Did the whole thing again 2 weeks later (in case any larvae had survived) and that was that

So much for having expensive real wool carpet

I agree you need professional help, if they get out of hand they could be in every room of the house before long. We had them, after years of trying to get rid of them I ended up removing all the downstairs carpet. The cocoons were at the edges of the carpet between the carpet and the underlay so no amount of moth spray was penetrating to that depth ( although I have been told that a steam cleaner might nuke them and not be as unpleasant to use as the toxic sprays that need mask etc to use)

I had moths in a kitchen cupboard and it was extremely difficult to get rid of them. All the food had to be thrown away but they had laid eggs in the grooves of the screw beads and in the hinges. It was awful.

Thanks so much for the advice. Can anyone give me a rough idea as to how much getting rid of them professionally would cost? (Have never experienced anything like this so have no idea...!) x

If it’s carpet moths, they are a nightmare. We had/have them. Sadly I think strong chemicals are your only option. We ordered loads of products, sprays, ‘bombs’, moth traps and are very slowly winning the war 🙈

It might be cheaper to throw out the wool carpet and buy non-wool.

cat same here carpet moths were a total nightmare!!! Here we treated 3 times before we thought we'd got rid. Yep, we're treating again!

Righto, thanks cat and all! Am a little panicked as we have our very young baby sleeping in our bedroom at the moment...am I going to be able to treat the moths while keeping the environment safe for my little one?

Maybe try a steam clean first?

Do you have anything wicker? We had a huge carpet moth problem some years back. They were absolutely everywhere. I kept reading (probably on here!) you need to find the nest. After many months of just not being able to get rid of them we found the nest, under a wicker chest. It was 🤮. But once that was gone we were better able to tackle it.

Good idea, Lumene.

Oh lordy, ohmyword - my DH recently moved a hideous, old wicker laundry basket into our room from the spare room. Could it be that?!

Hang on, might not be carpet moths, but just standard issue moths. Plus most carpets these days are moth-proof, so shouldn't need treatment. Do you have a photo?

For regular moths, I use these - we had a real problem and lots of woollen jumpers got destroyed, but they've not been back since I hung these up. They last six months.

Zensect Moth Hanging Proofer, (4 Units) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003JC5UR4/ref=cmswwrcppapiii_iRRyEbD8GGA1S

We had these - I didn't use chemicals,I hoovered,moved everything,hoovered,and repeat...And I had the whole family trained to kill moths on site
They lay eggs under things,in crevices,the edge of the carpet by the wall etc.
It did work,and if we get the odd one now I just do a really thorough hoover again.
Amazingly they never made it into DDs room,which is just as well as they would have found it a heaven on earth of discarded clothes and hidden dark corners!

You'll need to allow a day or two to get everything in order but after that it's not too bad.

Buy products to store clothes not in a wardrobe & products to kill / deter moths

I bought loads of storage bags to put clothes/bedding not in wardrobes in. Like these:
http://www.lakeland.co.uk/22270/Large-Protective-Storage-Bagg_
They also do suit / dress hangers.If you can wash / dry clean stuff before it goes in the bags even better.

Buy loads of sachets / hanging anti moth stuff like these http://www.lakeland.co.uk/23683/20--_Mothh-Stop-Sachetss and put sachets in all bags / drawers & the hanging versions in wardrobes. John Lewis do a similar range.

Buy the spray version http://www.lakeland.co.uk/24037//_Mothh-Stop-Sprayy and use around the tops of curtains ( give them a good shake out) and treat any suspected fabrics other than the carpet eg I sprayed the bottom of our mattress as it was near where the moths had made a home in the carpet. Hot wash bedding etc .

Clear all carpeted floors of small items , move any furniture away from the edges of the room if possible, hoover thoroughly ( ditch the bag afterwards) and book Pest Control to come and spray the carpets.

I used Millennium Pest Control who will come and do a moth treatment ( was £120 5 years ago) They are 0208 528 20877 http://www.millenniumpestcontrol.co.ukk//_ They come in, spray all carpets and up in the loft ( where moths may hang out). Should take around an hour and you have to then vacate the house for four hours. It doesn't smell too bad and is non toxic except to fish if you have any!

Two weeks later I would hoover thoroughly again and use the spray around the edges of the carpets. Repeat after three months.

Generally, on-going, moths hate being disturbed and hate light and air so fling open the windows as much as possible. Hoover regularly, pull out furniture and get in under things. Replace sachets etc after they expire. Keep clothes sealed or in wardrobes. Kill any live moths you see.

Check furniture- an ikea chipboard bedside table was infested

I successfully riffed our house of moths in one season by acting like a nutter!

Oh yeah and I did throw out the original carpet that was the culprit and replace with a nylon one

Omg...we have these, no idea where they have gone from...trying to sort out. We had the odd 1 but now keep spotting them around the house :(

No obvious culprit areas

You can lay traps if you're not sure of the origin.
It must be the mild weather, they're a bit early to be on the wing.
Hate them, off to spray!

We had them in the living room. They had eaten chunks of the carpet so it had to be replaced. We got a non wool carpet and never saw them again.
I seem to remember zapping them with spray from a John Lewis.