Bloody moths! ⚠️

[madeinmanc]

I just went to put a silk dress away that I had got out to try on and left hanging for a couple of weeks. The front has tiny moth holes in it, and a case so I know it was definitely them and not some other kind of damage.

I didn't even know they could be active at this time of year! Why do they always get to the very best things?! That was a gorgeous dress I've been saving for a special occasion, honestly I could cry 😢 I can't go out and buy another one, I just can't afford that kind of dress any more (I bought it when I had a higher income than now).

Anyway, this is a warning to anyone with a moth issue to start your moth proofing now, as they seem to have got started early this year. I have a cold house so central heating was not the issue at play.

They're active all year round as far as I'm aware. I can't get rid of them (wool stair runners and rugs). I'm always popping cashmere and silk in to the freezer for a couple of days as a precaution.

I'm going for the chemical nasty spray now. This is war 😠

Did you ever see them at the flying around stage? If so when was that?

No, I didn't but I have a long standing issue with moths. I also have wool carpets that need to go, I protect my clothes as best as I can but while there are wool carpets they will not be eradicated.

No! You need parasitic wasps. Three cycles and no more clothes moths.

Really.

Here.

Thanks, I'll check it out.
You know, right next to the dress was a pure wool Jaeger skirt that I inherited, it's plain and very unfashionable and I've been debating what to do with it for ages. They could have gone for that, but no, it had to be my lovely dress 😭

My mothers house always seemed to have an issue. Could never figure it out. Once she moved out and I had to clear the house I discovered they had been nibbling away on the corner edges of the carpets behind behind large heavy items of furniture that never got moved. I think wool carpets are a major cause.

This is what I discovered last year. DH chucks all his travelling bags down the side of a big wardrobe. I decided to move them last year and the carpet underneath was bald!!! 😭

Took us years to eradicate the little bastards critters. Pheromone traps (fluffy with bodies urgh), carpet powder, regular vacuuming and disposal immediately of contents. We got those zap bats & dp killed 20 of them in the bedroom once. They munched a wool stairs & hall carpet & my cashmere jumper plus other choice items. Yep they hide in dark warm corners, ours had a settlement behind the modem under the PC table.

Yes I think they like dark cool places that never see the hoover.

I had the same nasty surprise but with a Marks and Spencer classic navy Blazer. I’d had it for years and when Blazers become on trend recently I told my Dd and she was keen to try it on. Alas moths.

I think it was from when my brother moved in temporarily and had stored his rolled up vintage rugs in our spare room. I noticed those little egg cocoons on the floor, unrolled the rug and it was very infested. Some other rugs the same.

I ended up ordering some chemicals off a specialist company. I hate resorting to chemicals, so Thankyou @Tetsuo ill have a look at that.

I now keep things at bay by regularly turning clothes out of wardrobes and checking them cleaning and checking into all my dark corners and moving furniture to hoover under and check on wood rugs and carpets.

It’s an utter pain. I even thought I had bed bugs after getting bitten last summer, and I’m not sure which would be worse. Turned out I didn’t have bed bugs, but shingles!

So sorry about your lovely silk dress. They only like natural fibres like silk, cashmere and wool. Decadent bastards!

The idea of wasps I can't see is a bit worrying to me, as much as I need a solution.

@madeinmanc the wasps are microscopic.

Really, barely visible by the naked eye.

I quite enjoyed saying to DH and the DCs

'I'm just popping 10,000 wasps in your underwear drawer'.

It's the larvae that eat the protein fibres and do the damage before they turn into moths. So they're chomping away in what you think are the quiet months when the actual moths aren't around.

And most wasps are parasitic.

The stripy vespers that annoy us every Autumn make up a tiny proportion of wasp species.

use these - they trap the males and stop breeding
Also great for seeing how many you have
These are the best ones by far

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00KVGC5F6/ref=sspa_dk_detail_0?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B00KVGC5F6&pd_rd_w=HigAl&content-id=amzn1.sym.7b0d8b34-54be-4fd2-9baf-2d658b11dc53&pf_rd_p=7b0d8b34-54be-4fd2-9baf-2d658b11dc53&pf_rd_r=VQCFXMAP6QYSZJ3DYYC1&pd_rd_wg=HONTa&pd_rd_r=4c5e7785-fd65-492e-942a-8e9e6d4c1822&s=outdoors&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9kZXRhaWxfdGhlbWF0aWM

We only got rid of ours when we resorted to serious chemical warfare with the moth bombs that you burn. We did it just before we went on holiday when the cat was staying somewhere else and we were not going to be in the house. When we moved, the carpets under immovable furniture were chewed to bits and scattered with the dead bodies of huge spiders that the moth bombs also killed. I was a bit sad for the spiders but they should have done a better job with the moths.

Lol at the spiders😂

Interesting to hear about moth bombs. A lot of us have tried all the other stuff which can keep it under control somewhat but doesn't solve the problem. It's good to know that these things can eliminate them

I had to move house to get away from them

We seem to find moth holes in a lot of our clothes too - I now tend to keep anything made from natural fibres in those Really Useful storage boxes with a load of moth balls/cedarwood balls inside. It seems to be working so far

Thanks, that's an interesting idea re: the boxes. I usually keep silk things in dress covers but this isn't actually completely moth proof as they have got in before and damaged a dress, presumably because the dress covers have an opening where the hanger is. And then of course, you have to not leave things out ever as I did this time.

I did the thing with the parasitic wasps, and it seems to have helped (also from the dragonfli site). I've done two cycles so far, and have the sticky traps still for the moths, but i haven't seen one recently, so I am hopeful that it has now worked, though I might do another cycle just to be sure.

it's so disappointing to discover something ruined by moths, so I feel for you!

I can vouch for the waspy parasite things, they really seem to have reduced our population. I keep all my decent knitwear and silk blouses in mothproof bags now, it’s devastating when they ruin something precious. Bastards had my beautiful full length cashmere dressing gown.

Do you have to clean up the waspy things? Or you just set them loose and that's it?

Oh yes!! Id forgotten about those fogger things, yes to those!