Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

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Monday, February 13. 2023

Moths in the house?

 Is it a Pantry Moth or a Clothes Moth?


To avoid pantry moths, keep food sealed. They are disgusting. For wool moths (I've had lots of problems with them), the solution for my closets - too late for some items - is pesticide spray. Set the thing off in a closet, and close ithe door. It works.  



Posted by Bird Dog in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 14:50 | Comments (6) | Trackbacks (0)

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For pantry moth's freeze any flour or other grain base uncooked items for a few days before storing it in the pantry.

Their eggs are in your flour.

On the upside, those eggs are a great source of B vitamins, and may be the reason some vegans don't suffer from b vitamin deficiencies.
#1 Bill Adams on 2023-02-13 15:20 (Reply)
I used to clerk in a hardware store and we sold moth traps--a small tagboard tent with a pheromone scent. The traps do work but require a 2-3 month regiment to "clean up the patch".
The same moths that get into your pantry will infest any birdseed supply, also.
#2 benniebob (Link) on 2023-02-13 18:33 (Reply)
The abundance of cedar trees in my area provides lots of small wood pieces whose smell repels moths and other insects. Most people in my area believe that the fruit of osage oranges does the same thing, although experts say that is a myth.
#3 Frank on 2023-02-13 18:37 (Reply)
Pantry moth traps work better than cleaning up. Most infestations arrive in the food anyway (hot cereals boxed without a plastic inner sleeve).
#4 rhhardin on 2023-02-14 04:40 (Reply)
We have little 1/4" moths that don't look like either of those two photos. They hatch out from the bird seed for our canary. Everything in my pantry is sealed in glass jars, but the moths ate holes in my wool suit in the bedroom closet. I had to throw it out. They didn't touch anything cotton. BTW, my closet is lined with cedar; Clearly, that doesn't work.
#5 snopercod on 2023-02-14 08:33 (Reply)
I've had to deal with both sorts at different times.

The cardboard 'tent' sticky-traps use attractants that are specific to the type of moth, and are really more effective as a confirmation of "yep, I really do have a problem" than as a control for the problem. In each case use of the traps was part of my control strategy, but not the whole strategy.
For a while I had to order my clothes-moth traps from abroad to get effective ones (I guess our moth ancestors came from Europe as the same time as our forbears), but now I'm finding them on Amazon. Where I am it is still impossible to find ones with good reviews for effectiveness that are available at local retail stores.

On one clothes-moth occasion the outdoor weather was well below freezing, so moving the contents of that closet and other fabrics from that room into the car, parked outdoors overnight where the car interior would certainly freeze, was highly effective.

The effectiveness of cedar as a repellant/pesticide is on account of the sesquiterpene hydrocarbons emitted by the oils in the wood. As the wood ages, this will naturally decrease. Sanding can help expose some new wood to air and restore the effect for a while, but if it's not a well-sealed enclosure like a chest it is not going to have effectiveness that lasts for years. I lived in a house where someone had varnished the cedar-closet -- I think that they really didn't understand the concept.
#6 Douglas2 on 2023-02-14 09:55 (Reply)

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