How to Detect Moths in Your Home
Moths are insects that can destroy fabrics and food in your home. There are two types of moths that may be present in your home: moths that destroy fabrics and meal moths that are attracted to food products. Moths that destroy fabrics hide in dark areas and spaces in your home, while meal moths do not hide from the light. Once you detect moths in your home, you need to take measures to eliminate them. Does this Spark an idea?
Things You'll Need
- Flashlight
- Trash bags
- Vacuum cleaner with crevice or upholstery attachment
Instructions
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Detecting Fabric-eating Moths
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1
Open your closets and use a flashlight to illuminate all areas, including the floor, any shelving and the ceiling. The moths will try to escape from the light and hide in any dark areas.
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2
Remove all garments from your closets, including furs and woolen pieces, and look under collars, cuffs, seams and in folds and pockets for holes and moth cases. Fabric-eating moths deposit growing larvae in hidden areas of your clothing -- the cases will look similar to the silky texture of a spider's web. Inspect the garment closely, especially areas containing stains from foods, perspiration or urine -- moths are attracted to these areas.
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3
Look for moths and larvae underneath upholstered furniture, carpets, rugs, bedding, wall hangings and any area where crevices are present. If you have a piano, look at the instrument's wool felts for holes and larvae.
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4
Shine the flashlight along any baseboards in your home and look for moth larvae and any visible adult moths. Debris collects along baseboards and cracks and provides food for moths.
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5
Check areas behind any heaters, vents and air-conditioning units for adult moths and moth larvae.
Detecting Meal Moths
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6
Look around your kitchen for flying moths. Meal moths do not hide and freely move about your kitchen and other areas of your home.
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7
Open your kitchen cabinets, remove any open containers and look for living or dead moths as well as moth larvae. Inspect any cereal, flour, cornmeal, dried fruit and any grainy foods for moths and larvae.
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8
Look at and around your pet's dry food for moths. Moths consume pet food and lay larvae around the food.
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9
Place any moth-infested foods in a trash bag and dispose of it in your home's outdoor trash can. You also can freeze the food for one week to kill any moths and larvae if you don't want to throw the food away.
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Tips & Warnings
To eliminate fabric-eating moths from hard surfaces, use a vacuum cleaner with a crevice or upholstery attachment to remove adult moths, eggs and moth larvae. Dispose of the device's bag or the debris in your home's outdoor trash can.
Brush fabric items thoroughly and hang them in sunlight. You also can take the garments to a dry cleaner. Take fur, woolen items or other clothing you can't hang in the sun to a dry cleaner that specializes in fur or woolen cleaning.
Kill flying meal moths by placing pheromone traps where you see the moths. The traps are available from hardware and home improvement stores and online. The traps only kill male moths.
References
Resources
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