The dreaded Webbing Clothes Moth (Tineola bissellialla) or Common Clothes Moth, is a hugely damaging insect that secrets itself away in your cupboards, wardrobes and drawers. With reproduction, female clothes moth produces 30-200 eggs per sitting and the resultant larvae can decimate your clothing. In cool conditions, these Clothes Moth larvae may continue causing damage for up to 30 months, although life cycle can be completed in 30 days if the environment is perfect for them. Cool conditions slow progress considerably. These larvae spin webbing mats under which to hide and generally like to emerge at night or in dark conditions in order to feed on your fabrics. Only natural fibres are eaten, yes, our favourite clothing materials like wool and silk. Clothing or furnishings may be attacked.

We are happy to be able to offer a spray specific to use on clothing (woollens, cashmere) We have waited a long time for this product to come to market, so now we have it.
Acana Clothing Spray 275ml.
Some natural products will deter moth, such as lavender and cedar but once you have moth activity, you will need a killer to deal with them. One natural product that is effective is diatomaceous earth Pro-Active Dust however, this would not really be appropriate to apply to your clothing unless you could leave the clothes unused for around four weeks in order for the dust to have good effect. It is messy but non toxic to humans.
Let’s get down to business then.
Carrying Out a Treatment Against Clothes Moth
Initial whole room treatment.
There may be moth around in the room that is affected, not just in the clothes. A pre or post treatment that can be effective at killing moths that may be hiding under the bed or behind the curtains is to use an insecticidal smoke to smoke fumigate the room Pro-Active Mini Fumer.
Open drawers and wardrobe doors, close windows, seal open fireplaces and turn off fire alarms, then place sufficient smoke cannisters onto an upturned dinner plate in the centre of the room, light, watch from the door to ensure the smoke cannisters burn out totally without falling over, close the door and seal with masking tape. Re-open after four hours, open windows to ventilate for 15 minutes, the room can then be used straight away.
You Have Clothes Moth in Your Wardrobes and Drawers.
Remove all the clothes, where possible freeze natural fibre clothes for 72 hours in polythene bags with as much air squeezed out as possible. Man made fibre clothes can be stored seperately. We have suitable freezer bags (sweater bags) that can be frozen, thawed and then used for long term protection of the clothes within. These bags come with a moth killer product for post freezing use but can be used, (sometimes less successfully) without the freezing procedure.
Freezing the clothes kills all stages of clothes moth immediately, whereas if you do not freeze clothes, the damage being caused may continue for a couple of weeks before the moth killer strip takes full effect. You could schedule the freezing over a couple of weeks providing you keep pre-frozen items in the moth proof bags until all the clothes have had the cold shoulder treatment!
So, you have emptied the drawers and wardrobe, separated out the natural fibre clothes and either freeze those or placed them in the SWEATER BAGS with a moth killer sachet. You now need to treat the actual furniture in order that any moth venturing inside the furniture can be killed.
Remove all drawers and carefully vacuum or brush down both the drawers and the inside of the clothes storage cabinet, then apply Pro-Active C to all internal surfaces of the furniture, plus the rear outside panels if you can access them. Spray to point of run off, which is a term that essentially means, spray to the point that the liquid is about to start to run down the item, avoid getting past the run point. A little practice will teach you how much to spray without the insecticide running off like the water on the walls of a shower!
Ongoing Moth Protection For the Drawers
After returning clothing to the drawers, place Rentokil Moth Killer Sheets or Acana Moth Killer Sachets into the drawers (1 x Rentokil Moth Killer Strip or 1 x Acana Clothes Moth Killer and Clothes Freshener sachet per single drawer). Place the strips/sachets at the front of the drawer and do not cover with clothes.
Ongoing Clothes Moth Protection for the Wardrobes
We will assume you have sprayed the internal surfaces of the wardrobe. You can now hang either Rentokil Moth Killer Cassette or Acana Moth Killer and Clothes Freshener onto the clothes rail to create a moth free atmosphere within the wardrobe. Once these are installed you can return your clothing to the wardrobe. By spraying the furniture inside, you are ensuring that any moth hiding in cracks and crevices will be killed over coming weeks, the hanging units will deter new moth entering the wardrobe. Remember to replace these at 6 monthly intervals.
Clothes Moth Monitoring
To monitor your success, we have Clothes Moth Pheromone Traps . These come in packs of 10 and you can purchase Demi Diamond holders to assist in locating the traps around your property. Many of our customers use these moth traps as a control measure but they do not appear able to totally eradicate an existing moth problem as some customers have been buying clothes moth pheromone traps from us for over 5 years. These moth traps are useful to monitor whether or not new moths are entering your property. Most infestation begin from adult moth flying in through open windows in the summer months.
Pack of Products
We have a pack of Webbing Clothes Moth Products prepared to make ordering simple, however, products may vary slightly from what is described above. The pack comes with a detailed advice sheet but does not have Pro-Active Dust (diatomaceous earth).