What to do when you find Clothes Moths?

Clothes moths can be very pesky to have in your home. They often choose our most valuable articles of clothing because of their preference for natural fibres and they can cause a lot of damage.

When you are dealing with clothes moths, you’ll want to go through every single piece of fabric in your home. Everything needs to be treated with hot or cold temperatures. Normal clothing can be washed on a hot cycle and ran through the dryer to kill and moths/larvae or eggs. For your more sensitive items like wool or cashmere or anything that says not to wash on hot settings, you can either have them dry cleaned or bag and freeze them for 7 days to kill the moths/larvae and eggs.

Once you have heat (or cold) treated your fabric items, we recommend keeping them stored in sealed bags to prevent re-infestation. Moths have long life cycles so you may still see moths after preforming these tasks and keeping clothes stored in bags ensures you don’t have to re-wash everything.

If you are worried about a rug, steam cleaners can be used to treat these items.

Once you’ve taken these steps we recommend using a product like Properm Insect Killer which is available on our website (pick up in Vancouver only). When using any pesticide please remember to follow the label directions!