the MOTHman prophecies

You may or may not know that this last year I had an infestation of moths... I’m writing this blog to warn you that they are becoming more frequent again... especially in the West End of Glasgow it seems!

The following info is also useful to you to prevent having to go through this EVER yourself. Forewarned is forearmed - and if you know what to look for - you can stop this ever happening to you. It’s also having a good look at anything before you bring it into your house as a sofa / sporran / rug / cushion that’s been sitting in a warehouse might be the cause of your infestation!

Mention you have moths to your family & they will look at you funny & question if they were still around these days. A most definite “Yes” would be the answer to that.

The problem with moths is that most people that get them live with them and don’t do anything about them for months. In my case it was about 6 months-1 year. “Nah... it’ll be nothing. They’ll go away!”... Don’t do this. If you get moths like this:

... be scared & take it seriously before they do some serious damage. You don’t want to finally notice they are a problem after they have lain larvae & started to eat away at your clothes, sofa, bed, matress, curtains, carpets...

In total I had to throw out a bed and a sofa... and had 2 kilts destroyed.

First of all you need to know how bad you have them so you need to know what to look for AND where to look.



Moths:
Golden looking moths 1-1.5cm long as pictured above. They LOVE the dark so will be found behind curtains, under the edges of rugs, in cupboards, under sofas. They also LOVE wool & natural products & don’t tend to go for synthetic fibres... and sweat - they’ll go for under the arms of your jackets.

Eggs:
I only saw one bunch of eggs. They are tiny & look pearly in colour +/- are clumped together.

Casings:
These are larvae which are eating your stuff. The clever thing about them is they disguise themselves & their casing as the same colour as your item. And to the untrained / uncaring eye - these casings look like fluff balls

Larvae:
Once you see a larvae you’ll think... ming! It’s obviously not as big as that pictured. They’re like 1-2mm long. Prod it and it’ll curl up & move.

So what do you do now you have one / all of your rooms contaminated with moths?

The following is my advice because I’ve been through it! You will hate all things to do with moths once you have done the following:

1. Hoover & clean every room like Monica from Friends. All the time inspecting your stuff for the above. Take your sofa to bits, hoover everything you can. The agitation of the brushing motion can kill the eggs. Take special care to really hoover the edges of all corners & skirting boards with the narrow nozzle attachment on your hoover.

2. Look through all of your clothes - inside & out for evidence of the above. You do NOT want to clean your flat of all moths & then to have them spread from any single item you just glanced over in a rush. This will take a long time but this is definitely something worth taking your time over. Separate all contaminated products. Clean products should go into something like a plastic storage container until you’ve done the rest of the things you have to do:

3. Decide whether your infected clothes items should be binned. There will be some casualties here! All expensive things should be dry-cleaned. It’s the only way. If something is showing no signs of infection - put it in a zip clothes bag (Ikea sell packs of them for much cheapness) and you can wait and see. Every time you wear it have a quick once over & put it back in the zip bag instead of the cupboard once you’re home. Yes it’s a weird way of living for a while - but it is just a way to protect your stuff.

4. Get a guy in to spray insecticide over your whole flat. I used Environmental Services Pest Control from the Yellow Pages (East Kilbride Tel. 01355 271 722). Rentakill said you needed 3 treatments to be sure & because of such their price was double. The former said that was “Bollocks!” & he’d come back and do it again for free if he didn’t kill all the bastards. So I went with him. Cost was around £130. The insecticide is wet & can be sprayed on anything e.g. your rugs / carpet / curtains - no worries. It dries and turns into a powder (5% alphacypermethrin if you want to look it up). Another bit of advice - be there when he’s doing it - because he said it would take an hour. When I was there and made him spray EVERYTHING - that hour turned out to be over 3 hours!

5. Relax

6. After 2 weeks - if you see any more moths give the guy a call. But I didn’t & haven’t had any since.

7. Practice good anti-moth care for the rest of your life!!! Check anything you buy before bringing it into your house for moths. It takes like 10 seconds - but is worth it to prevent repeating the above I’m sure you’ll agree!


I hope this proves useful for you.

What did I learn?!
I will never NOT store my kilts / coats in a protective bag ever again in my life.