Getting rid of moths

A few years ago we were absolutely infested with moths. Clothes moths, that it, the ones that when stationary have their wings folded tightly along their backs, so they appear long and narrow. Like this

The beasties that do the damage are the larvae. In our case, these buggers made themselves little protective cases out of house dust and general grot, munch away at the carpets (which were wool, BTW; nylon carpets aren't attacked), and when ready to pupate would slowly climb up the walls and attach themselves to the ceiling, like tiny stalactites. At this stage they are quite vulnerable to finger-and-thumb treatment.

We tried all sorts, including pheromone traps, which caught absolutely nothing, and impregnated papers, the latter with uncertain results. Apart from catching them by hand, either as flying moths or pupae, by far the best treatment was a spray. I can't be certain what it was now, but I think it was this 'Zero In' stuff:

There are two types of moth - carpet and cloths.

Ive tried the pheromone pads which are sticky and attract the male moths. Although a dead month stuck to the pad cannot breed these pads serve mainly to see how bad an infestation you have. Unfortunately IMO these pads need to be fresh stock and there is no indication of expiry date from some suppliers.

You can get cloths moth killer strips but they have to be used for 3 to

I had one room where the pheromone traps caught a large number of moths and resorted to some Formula 'P' pest control products which consisted of shaking a power on the carpets and spraying some soft furnishings. I see now that they they do a smoke bomb type product. This seems to have worked in that the pheromone traps only caught a few more moths in the following months and I haven't seen any signs of a re-emergence this year.

No connection with the company - just a user of a couple of their products.

The company also has some fact sheets on the moths - strangely promoting their own products.

Just be aware that killing the adults is not enough the grubs will still be eating the carpets/cloths.

You probably have the lightly grubs somewhere and need to let them hatch before you can kill them, preferably before they mate and start another lot.

Brian

Yes that worked for carpet beatles as well. Nasty little buggers. Brian

A couple of years ago we had a problem with moths and after looking for a solution we ended up at Lakeland and bought a spray for carpets and some strips to hang in wardrobes/put in drawers. Not the cheapest of solutions but they did work for us.

Any decent pet-bedding anti-flea spray can should do the same, like Virbac Indorex which is 500 ml for the same price.

Vapona strips were great for dealing with moths and the like, but the Germans ^D^D^D^D^D^D EU banned them.

Thanks Alan for the link. My wife has looked at them a d according to the site you sent they are carpet moths - although I am fairly sure that the carpet in that bedroom is nylon (at least it looks it).

^H^H^H^H^H^H^H Shirley.

The last thread I was reading (Bloody Spiders) had

On 09/05/2018 06:07, Richard wrote: > Killem all. > Then post a few months later asking how to get rid of the moth infestation

Andy

Unfortunately not really a solution. Spiders may catch 1% of the flying adults but its the larvae that do the damage.

With 50 larvae per female moth and with a complete life cycle of 6 weeks the numbers can get quite high rather quickly.

Install a Saniflo then burn the house down