My laundry area is in a room off of the garage....for months we have been seeing little tiny moths...I sprayed but they kept appearing..then i found some in the house in my kitchen hoosier cabinet....it seems over this last weekend the eggs hatched in the laundry room where we keep alot of our clothes....the room is now cleaned out......clothes washed...brought into the house.....a big MESS!!! do they sell something for this problem?? what should i do in the future???? I hung those sticky strips in June which "caught" some..but not enough!!!!!!!! Thanks

-- chris (tinatudor@aolc.om), August 22, 2001

Answers

Response to mothis in clothes.closet

You can buy moth balls which would keep the moth away, I think they also kill any existing moths, and this also prevents the moth from laying their eggs on your clothes. The newly hatched lavae will eat small holes in your clothes. You can find moth balls at hardware stores or even wal-mart.

Anita

-- antia holton (anitaholton@mindspring.com), August 22, 2001.

Response to mothis in clothes.closet

That's right - and do it fast, before the grubs get going. Grubs won't be much affected by sprays.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), August 22, 2001.

Response to mothis in clothes.closet

You seem to be 'beyond' basil, but in the future hang basil everywhere! The bugs hate it.

-- Kathy (catfish201@hotmail.com), August 22, 2001.

Chris - I had the same problem along time ago and someone told me to make mesh bags and stuff them with cedar chips, put them all around the closet and the moths should go away...It did for me...AND your clothes don't smell like moth balls, they smell like Grandma's cedar chest. Cedar chips are real inexpensive too! Hope this helps.....Harmony

-- Harmony Bullington (harmonyfarm57@hotmail.com), August 23, 2001.

Chris, the cedar won't kill the larvae and I'm not sure how successful the moth balls are for that either. I have lots of scoured wool in the house as I'm a spinner/knitter/soon to be weaver. To kill the eggs and larvae, you have to expose them to extremes of temperature. You can soak items that can be exposed to water (trims and such are the problem) in almost boiling water-190o maximum, allow it to cool without ever agitating it, then spin dry and spread to dry. Press or whatever is necessary. The other option is to put the garments in the freezer at 0o for at least 10 days. It's a pain if you don't have freezer space but then you can say you have a cool wardrobe (gee, I'm sorry-I couldn't resist that). Do vacuum everything very well. Put dry clothing in a dryer on air fluff to help remove eggs and larvae then clean out the filter well. Good luck salvaging these things.

-- marilyn (rainbow@ktis.net), August 23, 2001.

don't have moths, had a bad case of mealy bugs in the pantry.

used lots of de [diatomeceous earth] in no time the bugs in the pantry were dead.

It's a fine white powder, like talc, just don't breath it -wear a dust mask and goggles.

This will sure make an easy to wash out mess.

-- (perry@ofuzzy1.com), August 23, 2001.