How to get rid of moths?

Moth Balls, There like little wooden pallets that you can put in drawers and and storage areas. I dont know where you can buy them, You could always google it. :)

Have you considered having bats as a pet?

Do they look like this, about ½ inch long?

The safer way is to use cedar blocks (need to be sanded occasionally) or cedar shavings from a pet store. Moth balls exude camphor fumes and are nasty to breathe.

Re; kitchen; Toss everything and start from scratch. Use glass canning jars with a rubber seal, ziplog bags or keep in fridge or freezer (dried nuts, cereals, seeds.) The moths will lay eggs that turn into wiggling white worms and may give you a heart attack when you are reaching for what you think is long-grained rice.

@Harp…yes actually they look just like that. Why?

@curiousk:^^ That’s the sucker I was talking about.

Those are Indian Meal moths. Here’s an excerpt from a post I wrote about them recently:

They come into the house in larval or egg form in grain products (we’re vegetarian, so we stock a lot of grain products), then hatch into adults and seek other breeding grounds in your pantry.

Basically, we repackage grain products as they come into the house into tightly-sealed containers. The moths will still hatch from food that was already contaminated (this just goes straight out into the composter once it’s discovered), but they won’t be able to get at other food in the pantry.

As someone who’s also struggled with this problem (I just moved, and I was fearful of bringing them with me—especially in the clothes), will cedar chips really do enough? That seems more preventative.

I froze all my sweaters for a month. So far so good.

The meal moths won’t mess with your clothes, thank goodness. They’re all about the grain.

My parents built astand-alone cedar closet in our attic. It always smelled delicious and all the winter woolens were stored in it.

I have a cedar-lined wooden chest that I use. It doubles as a low table.

@Ben; Just be careful not to confuse the cashmere with the fish sticks.

Moth balls, or buy a cat

@bcstrummer: Even the hardiest, most-muscled and most aggressive cat cannot eat all the moths that sneak in during the summer.

In spite of his own personal trainer, Milo can eat only a dozen a day, on a good day.

I have them too. I’m guessing purging every amount of grain based products in the pantry should take care of them? Crackers, cereal, chips, cake mixes, flour, etc.?

Nuts and seeds also. Wipe down interier of drawers and cabinets with a damp cloth before restocking.

KILL EVERY ONE YOU SEE. No. Seriously.

That totally took care of the problem, along with the sealing of all grains and never keeping cereal for over a month.

Ps. Don’t forget raisins. They love raisins.

I keep cold cereal in the fridge during the summer and all grains in freezer.

(Hey, delirum. So nice to have you back in town.)

I try to do that to some extent, but I never have room. In this house we usually have strange things in the freezer… examples include plant specimens, large numbers of baggies of mice, and so on.

(I missed you too! I have this mini-gail living in the back of my head to talks to me but I often miss the real one.)

@ben boy, I bet your nipples got hard when you put one of those frozen sweaters on.

@ everyone: Thank you all for responding. Last night we spent hours ridding our pantry of all grains, cereals, oatmeals, etc and cleaning as much as we could. Today I only saw a few of them, but I think I should have those little pests under control now…so I hope.. so, thanks again ! ;)

@curiousk: The moths do light and can be squished more easily than, say, swatting a house fly. But beware.They leave little, unappetizing stains (that can be wiped up with a damp sponge).