Clothes Moth Treatments Cambridge

Why Clothes Moths Pick the Clothes They Do

Clothes moth larvae feed on keratin, the protein in animal fibres. Wool, cashmere, mohair, alpaca, silk, fur, feathers and felt are all food. Blends are food too, as far as their natural content goes; pure cotton, linen and synthetics are not, although larvae will chew through them to reach something that is.

What decides which item gets eaten first is mostly how it was put away. Larvae are drawn to wool that carries traces of sweat, skin oils or food, and they need darkness and peace. So the damage turns up in the jumper worn once and hung back up, the coat at the end of the rail that only comes out in January, and the scarf folded at the bottom of a drawer.

The clothes you wear every week are rarely the ones with holes.

What You Do With the Clothes

This is your half of the job, and it needs doing before we treat so the wardrobe is empty.

• Empty the wardrobe and drawers completely. Everything, not just the obvious items, because eggs are too small to see.
• Sort as you go. Natural fibres in one pile, synthetics and cotton in another. The second pile needs only a normal wash or a good shake outdoors.
• Wash natural fibres as hot as the label allows. Where that is too cool to be reliable, freeze instead — sealed in a bag, for around two weeks.
• Send tailoring and delicate pieces to be dry-cleaned.
• Seal everything afterwards in clean bags or lidded boxes, and keep them out of the room until it has been treated.

Do not leave the cleaned clothes piled in another bedroom for weeks. They are clean, but if that room has moths too, you have just moved the problem.

What We Treat

Once the storage is empty, we treat the places the larvae live rather than the clothes themselves:

• The inside of the wardrobe — floor, corners, back panel and the joints where fluff collects
• Drawer carcasses and the voids beneath the bottom drawer
• The carpet under and around the wardrobe, chest of drawers and bed
• The edges of the room, along the skirting
• Any other room where the check turns up activity

Before we treat, we tell you what is used, where it goes and how long to wait before the clothes go back in and the room is used as normal. Follow those timings, and keep pets out of treated rooms for as long as we say.

Putting Clothes Back Without Restarting It

• Wash or clean anything woollen before storing it, even if it looks clean
• Store out-of-season clothes in sealed bags or lidded plastic boxes, not cardboard and not open shelves
• Keep a little space on the rail so air moves and items can be checked
• Take out and shake the rarely worn items every few weeks — larvae hate being disturbed
• Use a pheromone trap in the wardrobe as an early warning rather than a defence
• Treat cedar and lavender as a pleasant extra, not a barrier

Shared Houses and Student Lets

Cambridge has a lot of shared houses and student lets, and they add a complication: several people's wardrobes, and several people's belongings arriving and leaving, in one building. If one tenant has moths in their clothes, every bedroom should be checked, because the adults move freely between rooms. For who pays in a rental, see are carpet moths covered by home insurance.

Price and Next Steps

Clothes moths are treated under our carpet moth and carpet beetle control at the same price: £220 for the first room, plus £60 for each additional room. A bedroom with an affected wardrobe counts as one room. The carpet moth treatment cost guide covers the detail, and every treatment is guaranteed — if the problem comes back within 14 days of treatment, we return and re-treat free of charge.

If the damage is spreading into the carpets too, read how to get rid of carpet moths; if you are unsure what you have, start with our identification guide.