Cross posted to uk.rec.gardening
>
> > Don't know what I could have done to encourage them, but I'm suffering
> > a plague of small (clothes?) moths.
> >
> > Anyone know of reasonably safe ways of eliminating them?
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Roy Millar, snipped-for-privacy@Millstream.ednet.co.uk Use m o u l i n e t @ >
> There are loads of moths around at present but I doubt they are clothes > moths.
> I don't think they do very well on modern artificial fabrics.
>
> I keep finding moths hiding in unlikely places during the day.
> AFAIK they are mainly nocturnal and so have to find a safe retreat during
> the heat of the day.
> I am trying to explain gently that my stock of timber in the garage which I
> am using in my ever ongoing en-suite project is not a safe place to hide,
> but every time I pull out another piece of timber I find a moth hiding in
> the gaps below.
>
> If you can bear it, please don't eliminate them.
> Obviously check that they are not clothes moths first :-)
> AFAIK they are completely harmless and beneficial to the garden, much like
> butterflies.
> They seem to take over from the butterflies in the evening, flitting between
> the flowers.
I like moths: many of them are much more elegant than butterflies. The children and I used to set a moth trap overnight and admire and release our haul in the morning. Collins Gem Guide to Butterflies and Moths is very good for identifying.
Clothes moths are very small, and I doubt if you'd get clouds of them in the garden. Cabbage moths are the night equivalent of cabbage white butterflies; codlin moths are the ones which put caterpillars in apples; and I find mullein moths troublesome on verbascums here in West Wales. All these are shades of brown -- at rest, the mulleins look just like old bits of bark. Also a pest are winter moths, which you won't have just now, as, surprisingly, they appear in the winter: grease bands round your apple trees will stop the wingless females climbing up and creating havoc.
Mike.