Carpet and clothes moths - recommendations for treating

[malumbu]

We've been relatively blessed in recent times as I understand that some of our more extreme weather wasn't so good for their life cycle.   But drop your guard, turn your back, look under a piece of furniture and hey ho, lots of lovely holes

I expect that many of you have good recommendations and I'd love to hear them.  We've done the bombs, sprays, cedar balls in wardrobes and the like.

Is this particular to our bit of the country?  Never had them in the four other places I've lived in the UK

https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/about-us/search-news/operation-clothes-moth-results-english-heritage

 

 

[Jules-and-Boo]

we used the floor steamer on the carpets and that got rid of them completely. you can also use on upholstery with correct attachments

[Penguin68]

Clothes, scarfs etc. can be put in a freezer (for 36 hours or so - 3 days to be safe) and this will kill eggs and larvae. Then keep woollens in sealable plastic bags (you can buy these specified for moths on-line, they often come with sachets of anti-moth stuff) when you are not wearing them. This will protect them in storage. Sticky cards (pheromone laced) will attract and trap male moths, hopefully before they have mated. Blitz them (steam cleaning and freezing) - and then operate vigilance - protecting clothes in bags really does seem to work. 

I would put less reliance on things like camphor balls, which may discourage some moths but are more an annoyance to moths than a physical barrier or a poison or a fatal temperature (too hot or cold).

[A very hot wash will also kill eggs and larvae in clothes, but will also ruin woollen clothes].

[rollflick]

Like ants, better to prevent access to the food source, as Penguin68 says with bags, than to try to poison them.

Just had a few appear again this season. After finding nematodes worked really well for a bad year of slugs / snails, I'm intrigued by parasitic wasps. Has anyone tried them?

https://www.pestfreegardening.co.uk/products/clothes-food-moth-control-with-trichogramma