Argh - they're back!

I hate them too Jane10 - but the alternative is we should have more synthetics and less natural protein fibres...
Not so nice...

They don’t like being disturbed so lots of extra shaking, washing, vacuuming helps.

I have maybe 40 kg of wool/cashmere/silk yarns here. Needless to say they are almost all double/treble bagged.

I warned DD to look out for them but she thought about it and reckoned she didn't have any natural fibres in the house. No wonder I have electric shocks all the time I'm there!
That's a lot of fabulous yarns NotSpaghetti, what do you plan to do with them?

Apparently what to do is to bag up your vulnerable garments in a sealed bag and freeze them for a couple of days. Thaw them out still in the bag and store them in that sealed bag or another. If there are any of the blighters also inside, freezing will do for them. I believe affluent ladies used to send their furs to be stored in a freezer for the summer.

I can't bag up all my rugs and curtains!!

I've been in the special cold room for furs in Jenners in the old days Elegran. It was horrifying. For some reason I was more upset about a wolfskin rug that all the mink. jackets and coats. That's why I wrote that chapter in book 1. It felt cathartic.

I discovered carpet moth in the rug underneath the sofa when I was doing my occasional hoover underneath! I bought moth killer online, a spray, a powder, and a different sort of spray plus a pheromone trap. Took about half a day but well worth it, haven't seen any sign of them since

Try the anti flea house spray on your carpets. Hoover carpet first then spray thoroughly, especially in corners etc. Close room up. Once dry any insect etc that crawls on the carpet dies and can be hovered up. I find the spray on the carpet is effective for about a year.

I still keep finding the occasional larvae around and yes, I'm sure the little flying blighters are around again, they are so quick.
Flying insect spray into dark corners and using a handheld vacuum with the nozzle helps to get into cracks and crevices.

Spiders try to take over the conservatory. I'm reluctant to use any spray in there because bees tend to wander in and have to be rescued.

We even got rid of some heavy furniture, grannysyb (pre-lockdown) as we couldn't move it to keep vacuuming behind but they still appear occasionally.

I used to stink of mothballs years ago as I hung them around an alpaca sweater ( very dear ) I'd bought from Oz .Even the shop had repellent everywhere, as their moths have even bigger appetites.
I had to put mothballs in the corners of the carpet in one house as there were odd patches of baldness on the lounge carpet which was all wool.

Because we had a dog and a canary at the time I didn't want to use a spray, instead I polluted my nostrils with mothballs.
I used to have to hang the jumper out in the air before I wore it

My next door neighbour is plagued with ants but I haven't seen one near my doorstep----yet. I ran a line of Dettol along the crease/join in the step this morning just in case.

I've suffered with these blighters, and if there are any in the house they seem to surface in the evening.

I've removed all wool carpets etc., and have hard floors downstairs now. Primarily because they wrecked a very expensive wool fitted carpet some years back. We just couldn't beat them.

When you good people talk of them living in dark corners, do you mean where there is wool carpet for them to live on?

They don't just hide or live in a dark space where no silk or wool is do they?

Notspagettii … same here with the yarn

Ha ha, I weave Jane10, what do you do with yours Namsnanny?

Yes, on a wool carpet Namsnanny. Nearly new.

I'm crocheting with wool too, if they get into my 'knitting' bag I won't be best pleased.

We get ants too. And woodlice.
This house is cleaned very regularly.

In fact I don't know why I don't just move out and let the insect world take over.

Like @grannysvb, my niece discovered carpet moths, or shall I say I did as she is registered blind. Under heavy furniture, the bed and around edges of carpet, one room upstairs and one room downstairs. I thoroughly vacuumed, sprinkled a special powdered around the edges, left for required time, vacuumed again, then sprayed a special solution on the affected areas, and finally let off a special fumer. All windows and doors shut and house left for required time. Actually my niece spent the night at her mum’s house.

The next day all windows and doors open as there was a bit of a smell but really it was just a gentle reminder that the unwelcome visitors had now gone. Also left a couple of moth traps to check they really had gone! No sign of return after a year.

I bought a collection of stuff from Amazon but rentokill from Robert Dyas also sells some. I used carpet moth treatment but you can also get cloths moths treatment. I regularly hang cloths moths treatment in wardrobes as I would totally freak out if I found a grub!

We have them too! I thought they had gone when we lifted 3 carpets and chucked them out. Then we had 2 floors sanded and oiled which are easy to keep clean.

I bought some more of the hormone traps and already they have filled up. I even find them in the shower!

I have precious woollens (what's left of them) in zipped bags or in the freezer.
I never have been a great cleaner but I have only had moths for about 3 or 4 years whereas we have been in the same house for 40.

I am tempted to get Rentokil in to totally fumigate but that's introducing poisons and I hate the thought of that.

Even before Lockdown , The National Trust house near Musselburgh. Newhailes was closed to the public due to an outbreak of moths in their tapestries and carpets.

www.nts.org.uk/stories/mothbusters-at-newhailes

I think carpet and fabric moths are the same thing.

Carpet and clothes moths are also sometimes called tapestry moths.
There are however two sorts of clothes and carpet eating moths:
Tineola bisselliella
and Tinea pellionella
They get their names from the way their cocoons are made, hence their other names - the webbing moth and the casemaking moth

They both will destroy carpets and clothing.

Thanks for the explanation NotSpaghetti.
So they feast on the same thing but are different.

They are so tiny and mostly crawl about the carpets or dart around my bedroom in the evenings

There are cocoons and I think these are cases rather than webbing but we may have both sorts.

I wish someone would discover they are a cure for something and very valuable as they drive me mad.
Is there a Latin name for me? O me miserum!

I had sprayed and done everything I thought possible to deal with the little so and sos but last night I saw the cat looking at something on my best persian rug and before my eyes a little b** r appeared and fluttered up from the pile of the rug. Needless to say I've ruthlessly hoovered and sprayed again but??????

We still find the occasional ones. I patrol the edges of the carpet every day and still one or two of the little b****rs flit past each evening.
I found a larva the other day and popped it on to the wooden furniture intending to look for more. To my horror, it shot across the furniture at speed

My DSis paid a small fortune to Rentokil to fumigate their whole house and it seemed to work but then they began to find more evidence. She has a very clean house and employs a cleaner!

I thought we were on top of it a couple of years ago when we bought loads of de-mothing kit and tackled those carpets and clothes. I threw out 3 carpets and heaps of clothing. I even found an old freezer to put some of our woollen throws

I believe the Blighters are endemic now at least in Edinburgh. I noticed that the knitting wool shop wouldn't take back anything and when shopping in the Royal Mile, I saw a salesgirl calmly bring out the moth spray and waft it around the lambswool.

Ive just seen this thread. Very opportune as this morning Ive been making bags of mixed Thyme , Rosemary & lavender to hang in the wardrobes and drawers plus leaving cotton wool soaked in lavender oil in strategic places, all because I saw 2 moths last night - now deceased. I wonder how many more there are lurking and whether my ‘natural’ defence system will work

Marmight it will work as well as the chemicals and will smell gorgeous!

I keep all our socks in a sealed plastic box with bars of soap and lavender bags for company.

Apparently they are on the increase, especially in the South-west.
If each moth can lay 200 eggs and we now have central heating it's not surprising.

oh thats what they are ... i just catch them and put out of the window...