Cleankill Pest Control London, Pest Control Surrey & Pest Control Sussex

Holes in the winter woollies? Make sure it doesn’t happen again

With bed bugs playing havoc across the Atlantic in hotels, stores and homes, pest control companies are on high alert for travellers bringing them over to the UK.

But a South London pest control company says it’s not bed bugs that are causing a problem at the moment but clothes moths who are munching their way through precious pashminas and wool carpets.

Staff have seen a surge in calls to properties in London and have even been called into eradicate the creatures from a warehouse owned by a well-known clothing retailer which involved freezing hundreds of garments.*(see case study below)

Cleankill Managing Director Paul Bates explains: “As the temperature starts to drop, people are starting to open drawers and cupboards that contain their winter clothing only to find that their best woollen jumpers are full of holes.”

The common clothes moth (Tineola bisselliella) is a cosmopolitan species of moth that is very destructive to nearly all clothing and fabrics containing natural fibres. The moths themselves are about 11mm long and are a silvery brown colour. They rarely fly towards the light and instead prefer darkness such as wardrobes and drawers. The females are weak fliers and often travel by simply running across floors and walls.

Paul says it is the larvae, however, that do the damage: “After the adult has laid her eggs on the threads of clothes, the larvae hatch out at anywhere between four and 21 days, depending on the temperature. The newly hatched larvae are about 1mm long and will start to spin a small, silken tube, using some of the fibres of the fabric they are eating. They will eat from many sources including furs, woollens, animal bristles on brushes and even the felt inside pianos! In loft spaces they will find old stored clothing, carpets and even bird feathers.”

It is not only moths that attack clothing and fabrics in the home. The varied carpet beetle (Anthrenus verbasci) is another voracious feeder. The adult looks similar in shape to a small ladybird, but has a varied pattern of brown and white mottling. The adult feeds outside on flower heads of Spirea and Hogweed, but they fly indoors and lay their eggs, which hatch out into small larvae about two to 4mm long. These are often known as woolly bears and will happily munch their way through all of the best pashminas in the house.

Experts like Paul say that problems can be prevented through good housekeeping. His tips include:

1. Never put dirty clothing away – insects love the moist residues that we leave in the armpits of jumpers - it makes a Michelin meal for moths!
2. Once the woollens are clean, putting them away in sealed storage bags is always a good idea. However, if this is not practical, a once-a-month turnaround of stored clothing in drawers is a good idea, as the larvae do not like light or disturbance, and you will very quickly see whether there is any damage to your fabrics.
3. Move any standing furniture such as chests of drawers, that are sitting on carpets, forward and look at the carpet behind them – these are often the dark, undisturbed areas that the larvae will munch on for months before being discovered.
4. If you do discover them, firstly increase your vacuuming regime as this will create a disturbance and remove eggs and larvae that are exposed. In particular, vacuum beneath beds and behind radiators where natural fibres will gather in the dust.
5. Dry cleaning clothing, or washing in temperatures above 48c, will kill all stages of the insect pests. For items that cannot be dry cleaned or washed, put them in plastic bags and then into the freezer for a few days. This will also kill the pests.
6. Finally, for peace of mind, an insecticidal treatment of the property by a reputable pest control company such as Cleankill should be carried out in order to kill any of the stages missed by your own housekeeping.

Spraying the clothes with chemicals was not an option and Cleankill had to quickly devise a solution that would stop the problem as quickly as possible and prevent any further damage.

Cleankill decided to treat the clothing and the premises separately and that chilling the insects that were still on the clothes into submission would be the best option. The solution was a large refrigerated vehicle that was delivered to the warehouse. The client’s staff loaded the freezer before the Cleankill team got to work spraying the now empty warehouse. A couple of weeks later, the clothes were taken out of the freezer and they were totally moth free!

Clothes moths select only the most organic merchandise for lunch like cashmere. lambswool, tweed, sheepskin and fur. Often, by the time they are discovered, they have already caused some damage. The usual culprits include carpet beetles, fur beetles and various clothes moths who like living in dark, undisturbed places.