Moths all over the place (please help me)

[alflauren]

About a week ago, I moved into my new apartment. It's a loft on the edge of some woods and a beautiful gorge. During the daytime, it's wonderful. I can see the gorge, hear the birds, kick back, and enjoy myself. At night, I AM IN SHEER TERROR. At night, it is MOTH FEST.

I don't have A/C so I can't close the windows, and it's a loft - so the windows go from about two feet off the ground to the top of the 10 foot ceiling. Yes, I have screens on them, but there are so many cracks and crevices for little things to get inside.

Tonight I have killed three large orange ones and a couple of brown ones. First, I hit them with newspaper, but this didn't always work. If I didn't pick them up right away, they would re-animate and start flying around again. So then I started hitting them with a paperback book. This was much more effective, but I can't kill the fast-moving ones as easily.

My new method is a form of preemptive warfare. I wait until a bunch of the damn things are on the outside of the screen, and then I use insect fogger to nuke them. Last night, this worked pretty well, but for some reason there are still some getting through tonight. Plus, I'm worried about too much exposure to pesticide.

SOOOO.....

The bottom line is that I will probably be living with some level of moth until it gets cold out. I need to protect my clothes, since, apart from my car, they are my largest material investment. What do I do?

I don't want to use mothballs since I sleep near my closet. At this point, I have cedar blocks in the closet and in my dresser and I've kept the lights in the bedroom/closet off at night so that moths don't get the idea to go there. I've also kept the closet doors closed.

Any tips? I'm thinking that, just to be safe, I should brush all of my suits, put them in bags, and put some cedar in the bags. This thing from Bed, Bath and Beyond looks like what I need, except I'd probably have to buy five of them and would like a cheaper alternative if possible. If anyone has other ideas on products, please let me know.

 

[j]

I think that's a good plan to start - shake and brush out all your stuff and put jackets into breatheable canvas bags.

Also, get one of these, they work great:

http://www.asseenontv.com/prod-pages/bug_zapper.html

The moths you need to worry about, (AFAIK), are the sandy-brown ones about 1/2" long. IIRC the big ones don't attack clothes, though I could be wrong and I don't spare them either.

 

[robin]

Get a cat, or two, but then you'd have to worry about the cat hair...

Seriously, you're situation is my worst fear - I'm not sure what I would do either. Some options:

* Shake out your clothing regularly, and well as give them a good brushing.
* Use lots of cedar.

 

[gdl203]

I believe that the night moths you see (brown butterfly-shaped insects) are different from the wool-eating moths.

This is the family of moths that eat textiles:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tineidae

 

[texas_jack]

Originally Posted by gdl203

I believe that the night moths you see (brown butterfly-shaped insects) are different from the wool-eating moths.

This is the family of moths that eat textiles:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tineidae

Happy 3000, boss.

Someday I hope to have 1 post.

 

[Go Surface]

I would move ASAP.

Bugs scare me shitless.

 

[gdl203]

Originally Posted by texas_jack

Happy 3000, boss.
oh thanks - did not see that - how did that happen?

 

[alflauren]

Thanks for the tips. I do recall reading that there are only certain kinds of moths that eat wool, and they're not the kind of common moth that you typically think of. Besides, I think these big orange ones are more interested in people than in clothing.

Any good source for these canvas bags? Walmart?

Maybe I should contact my insurance agent and see if I can get a special rider for moth damage. Either that, or torch the whole MFing forest.