Insect (probably small moths) problem

easy guv'nor

Hi All,

Think this is the forum for this - I have what seems like small moths in my bedroom. I'm in a one bedroom ground floor apt, and there's nothing outside the window causing this. A couple of weeks ago there would never be more than one moth around the room but now I walk in and there could be up to five bantering around.

Can anyone recommend anything to get rid of these?

Wonder what could cause this?

Thanks,

Guv.

Wishbone Ash

easy guv'nor wrote:

Hi All,

Think this is the forum for this - I have what seems like small moths in my bedroom. I'm in a one bedroom ground floor apt, and there's nothing outside the window causing this. A couple of weeks ago there would never be more than one moth around the room but now I walk in and there could be up to five bantering around.

Can anyone recommend anything to get rid of these?

Wonder what could cause this?

Thanks,

Guv.

Lights on with window open at night?

chuckles30

Have you got a disused chimney or any kind of 'hole' where they might have formed a nest? I was sharing a house last year and my housemate suddenly noticed her room having loads of moths, so she watched them one night and realised they were coming out of the chimney. It was an old house that still had the fireplaces/chimneys (unused) in the bedroom. She had to get 'mothballs' I think they're called and unfortunately I have no idea where you could get them. The one thing I will say is that if you have to go down that road, everything will stink of them for months, but at least you won't have the moths any more.

delly

There is a Nature/Bird Watching forum, but we'll see if you can get answers here first.

As said previously, the main way to stop them coming in would be to keep the windows closed or if you have too, make sure the lights are off. Had a bad experience with a spare bedroom window open with the light on, when I realised it was too late with about half a dozen moths and about 10 daddy long legs :eek:.

trillianv

To make sure that the moths don't eat your clothes and linens and not have the mothball smell....get cedar. You can usually get cedar inserts to go into the floor of your wardrobe. Moths don't like it and will steer clear of the area. Also, don't leave your light on and a window open as said earlier. This will just bring them in droves. You can get mothballs from most hardware stores (they are a type of pest control) but the smell is not nice off them and they can be poisonous to animals.

easy guv'nor

brilliant - thanks for that. Hate the smell of those mothballs.

Are those cedar inserts something you'd get in a hardware store or a B&Q or something? Haven't come across them before.

cltt97

These moths also don't like lavendar, and you can buy little lavendar bags in hardware stores (they've got all that stuff in Lenehans in Rathmines for example). I've had them too, and the only way to get rid of them is to kill them. So anytime you see one, kill it. I had to wash all my clothes and curtains and any kind of fabric where they could nest to get rid of them. They're particularly keen on wollen things, and will nest in them, thereby quite nicely ruining your stuff. And they don't just fly in, they multiply - fast, so get rid of them asap!

r3nu4l

Uh oh! I hope I am wrong but you might have carpet moths OP! I moved into a rented ground floor flat in Cambridge 2 years ago and had a similar problem.

No open windows, no chimney or obvious point of entry yet I was killing up to about ten moths per night.

Then I discovered one or two small silk cocoon cases in the corner of the ceiling and hoovered them away, moved a chest of drawers and lo and behold about fifty silk cocoons sitting on the carpet :eek:

I discovered about 200 more that night, hoovered them all up and next night killed about 15 moths :mad:

So myself and the gf lifted the carpet to discover about 200-300 silk cocoons, when I examined the carpet fibres it was literally crawling with small carpet moth caterpillars (about three to five millimeters long, white body, orange/brown head).

Google has little information on these - most pages are dedicated to clothes moths and carpet beetles.

What I know about them:
They only live on natural fibres like woolen carpets etc.
They are initially attracted by dirty carpets or materials but once they are in, they will stay in clean carpets too!!
They are extremely difficult to get rid of.
They will move from the initial room to all other rooms with natural fibres.
They will live on couches, curtains or any natural material.

We tried steam cleaning the carpets, that only encouraged hatching!!
We then chemically cleaned the carpets but that didn't kill them either, seems as though that silk casing is as strong as it is supposed to be.

Solution - Get rid of the carpet. If you can't then to minimise the problem move as much furniture as possible and give a thorough hoovering of the carpet at least once a week. Don't forget to hoover under the bed, nightstands, everywhere!

Each time you hoover the carpet, get rid of hoover bag and put it into a bin outside!

If you have any clothes you haven't worn in a while, check them, we found these moth cases in our chest of drawers, wardrobe, under the matress...

Check under your couches, in the curtains or lampshades or anything with natural materials. They tend to like dark places where they remain undisturbed.

Finally, good luck, I hope I'm wrong but post back and let us know! Feel free to post or PM me if you need any more advice.

EDIT: Mothballs are carcinogenic (cancer causing). Do not use them. Also, I tried both cedar and lavendar to no effect I even went so far as to powder the cedar and sprinkle it into the carpets.

cltt97

A friend of mine had carpet moths in her house, they actually had to get pest-control people in there to gas the house, which did the job....

r3nu4l

Yes, they can be quite a problem when they get to infestation level. If cauht early, getting rid of the carpet should do the trick so long as they are not hiding in the furniture! Otherwise, pest control it is...

r3nu4l

OP, any news? Do you have carpet moths?

Irish Gardener

Hello easy guv'nor,
are the moths smaller than a common house fly?
If so it sounds like you may have pantry moths.
They will feed on whole-grain cereals, fibre rich bread, rice etc.
I would probably throw out all your existing cereal and rice based products for fear of eggs
Keep those items well sealed in future as you dont want any moth larvae due to eggs laid in your rice.
Also keep food areas clear of crumbs.

Leaving a glass or two of wine out will attract the adult moths, they will fall in and drown. That at least will sort out the adults.
I hear they are quite partial to white zinfandel.
I kid you not.

easy guv'nor

bit stumped by this tbh. Don't have carpets (wooden floors)or much furniture they could live in, so i don't think its carpet moths. They're about the same size as a house fly, but slightly longer and slimmer.

I'll definitely check the food when I get home - I'm sure there's some old packets of rice or cereal or something at the back of the cupboard where they could be hiding.

They're at the level where there always seems to be one or two around, no matter how quickly I kill them.

thanks again folks - really appreciate the advice.