It’s a little chilly tonight. As you plan to meet some friends for drinks, you pull your favorite sweater from the open chest in the closet only to find a hole in it the size of a quarter. Ruined. Another sweater, same story. Guess what, while you’re clothes were sleeping, a fabric pest was gnawing away at your stuff.

Sorry Charlie. You may have clothes moths.

Clothes Moths?

Gramma used to always mention these insects. You remember the smell of mothballs on your summer clothes when they were unearthed from the old cedar chest?

It’s not just one bugger that could be doing the dirty work. There are three kinds of insects that love your favorite clothes more than you do:

• Clothes moths
• Hide beetles
• Carpet beetles
• The Early Rolling Stones

What makes them so destructive isn’t personal. They just have the moxie to be able to digest something called keratin. That’s the substance which gives them protein and it’s not only fabric they can survive with in a pinch. It’s a protein that’s also found in human skin, fingernails and hair.

But their real targets are wearables like furs, coats, sweaters and even furniture. They sense people’s sweat, urine and hair oils. Kind of like chemical beacons that beckon the clothes moth. So, basically if you have any keratin-based stuff around the house, combine that with this tiny butterfly-like insect and you get holes in the materials. If you’re a polyester-freak or wear silk clothes, no need to concern yourself. No keratin, no food for them.

The Big Three

They can fly, however they mostly hop from place-to-place. If they do take to the air, it’s usually done in dark environments.

• The most common are webbing clothes moths. You know one by its gold color, a shiny head and wings and a splash of red on their noggins. Museum curators hate these beasts as they love what a storage house of history has on display.
• Here in Alabama it’s pretty hard to find the tapestry clothes moths. Not impossible, though. They’re the biggest of the three with black tips on their wings and white heads. If you’ve got any trophies of big beasts that have undergone taxidermy, that’s their main course. And they seek-out old rugs and tapestries, too.
• Living in the south, you’ll run into casemaking clothes moths a lot. They’ve got a trio of dark spots on their wings which are brownish-gray. As it chows-down on your clothes, it generates a dome of silk that it lives in. That case makes it difficult to spot one because it is generally the same color as the material the casemaking clothes moths are feeding upon.

Outing and Eliminating the Moths

Some quick tips how to keep your clothes from being victimized by these three types of moths:

• Call us at Vulcan Termite and Pest Control. We can point you in the right direction to purchase some fine powders that will destroy an infestation. Just don’t get the stuff on your clothes.
• Get a broad-spectrum liquid insecticide that you can spritz around the edges of your rooms and in your closets.
• Air conditioning and heat work wonders. It wrings-out the moisture from the air. Moths need high humidity to survive.
• As you apply some of these solutions, take everything to the dry cleaners. That process alone will kill the babies.
• Woolens and the like should get a good shake outside to dislodge anything that’s nestled into the fabric.
• Call gramma and ask her where she buys her moth balls.

Original Source:https://www.vulcantermite.com/home-pest-control/the-moths-are-eating-my-clothes/