My Home Was Infested with Clothes Moths — Here’s What Experts Told Me to Do to Get Rid of Them

I am sad to admit that I had clothes moths in my New York City apartment. I noticed these flying bugs for a few weeks before I Googled them and discovered what they were — and realized that they were happily munching away on my gorgeous orange and yellow vintage wool shag rug. I tried every remedy I could find on the internet — from giving my home a really thorough vacuum to setting up traps and deterrents — but nothing worked.

The internet was failing me, so instead I sought out advice from actual pest experts, including an exterminator and researcher. They helped me learn how to get rid of clothes moths, as well as provided me with preventative measures — read on for everything you need to know.

Clothes moths, otherwise known as Tinneola bisselliella, are pests that are attracted to materials made of animal fibers (keratin), such as wool, cashmere, silk, and leather. (Sometimes they do eat non-keratin fibers, but this is not their favorite food source and doesn’t provide the same level of nutrition, experts say.) According to Isabel Novick, PhD candidate in evolutionary biology who studies fungus moths including the webbing-clothes moth, these moths are like cockroaches in their hardiness and survivability. Once you have them, good luck getting rid of them. 

What’s more, clothes moths release a pheromone to attract other moths to their area and reproduce fast — in a couple of days, a female clothes moth can lay up to 50 eggs, which incubate and hatch within a few days to a week. These babies, as larvae, do the most damage — they eat your precious cashmere sweaters and silk dresses. Then, they become adults and the cycle continues. 

There are quite a few theories for how you might get clothes moths in your home. Eric Braun, a technical services manager at Terminix, says that sometimes clothes moths come in through no fault of your own. They can just fly in through a window, find something tasty, and eat your stuff until you find them. Novick, on the other hand, is skeptical of that belief: “I’ve heard a lot of pest control companies say that that happens. But I just haven’t found any evidence [of it].” She did say that people who live in dense cities (like me!) might be more susceptible to them simply flying in off the street, but for the most part they’re brought into your home because they live on something keratinized that you bought, like a rug, sweater, or leather jacket. 

It’s important to note that clothes moths are attracted, in particular, to dirty clothes. “Clean items are less attractive than soiled items, because things that we wear frequently [have body oils on them],” Braun says. The body oils smell good to them (yuck!) and have certain nutrients that they can’t get otherwise. So cleaning your clothes, rugs, or other hotspot items regularly is important to eradicate bugs and prevent them from coming in the first place.

Both Novick and Braun say that reaching out to an exterminator is hands-down the best way to deal with these pests. But unfortunately, it’s not as simple as a quick spray treatment to get rid of these nasty moths. Unfortunately, dealing with clothes moths is a lot like dealing with bed bugs (which I also had to deal with about 12 years ago). You have to prep your space completely prior to having an exterminator come in. Here’s how to get rid of clothes moths once you have them, according to Braun and Novick:

1. Determine where the source of your clothes moths infestation is. You may find eggs, clothes moths, or cocoons in the cracks or crevices around the feeding area. I found both eggs and moths.
2. Get the items professionally cleaned — dry cleaned, heat treated, or frozen. Work with someone with experience dealing with clothes moths.
3. Bag, fully seal, and treat all clothing items. That means every closet or area that you have clothes moths.
4. Professionally dry-clean keratinized goods. Get items like leather jackets, wool coats, and cashmere sweaters taken care of. Additionally, get infested carpets professionally cleaned, or vacuum them thoroughly prior to treatment.
5. Hot wash, hot dry, or freeze cotton/keratinized items. Novick endorses freezing in particular.
6. Store clothing items. Once clean, store items in water-tight hard plastic bins to protect them from clothes moths in the future. (Novick says that some clothes moths are able to chew through soft plastic, like vacuum-sealed bags.)
7. Treat your spaces with professional-grade extermination techniques. When an exterminator comes in, they’ll inspect and treat the area with a variety of tools, says Braun, such as dust insecticides or liquid residual insecticides to kill the adults and larvae (and as eggs hatch and turn into larvae, they’ll be affected by it). Ask your exterminator what products they are using (and if they are kid- or pet-safe, if relevant) and what they recommend you use for further treatment.
8. Vacuum often (and empty outside). After treatment, regularly vacuum these spaces with your brush or rake attachment to suck up eggs. Make sure to empty your vacuum bag right away and remove it from the house.
9. Repeat the extermination process as needed. Consider doing multiple rounds of extermination based on the severity of your infestation and your exterminator’s recommendations.

There are several methods to try in order to prevent clothes moths; however, not everything is endorsed by professionals. For instance, lavender sachets, cedar blocks, and other natural deterrents can be used, but Braun and Novick don’t necessarily recommend them. These are the evidence-based prevention methods that they do recommend doing to prevent clothes moths.

• Make sure your screen doors and windows are in good working order — and have no large holes in them.
• Inspect any keratinized items you bring into your home. For instance, if you buy a wool sweater at a thrift store, consider dropping it off at a dry cleaner right away or sticking it in the freezer for a couple of days to kill any bugs that may hitch a ride on your garment. 
• Store your items when not in use. Make sure to use watertight hard plastic storage containers. I store my items in vacuum-sealed bags inside a watertight plastic bin — that way they’re double-sealed from bugs, and I’m able to store as much as possible in a smaller space. 
• Vacuum regularly. Vacuum regularly with your brush attachment — making sure to clean the walls, baseboards, and behind, under, on, and in your sofa. Vacuum your rug with the attachment as well. 
• Wash your clothes regularly. Because clothes moths love dirty clothes, it’s important to clean your items often.

I’d been through large-scale exterminations before, so I knew what to expect financially when the time came to hire exterminators (warning: It’s not cheap!). My husband and I spent one long, annoying weekend going through our closets, deciding what clothes to get rid of altogether and what to save, dry clean, and hot wash, and then washed and dried everything at the laundromat.

Both Braun and Novick warned me that clothes moths can be dormant for weeks, months, or even years, so we thought we may have to invest in regular exterminations after the first process to make sure we killed any larvae that survived our culling. Luckily, we haven’t had to hire an exterminator since! We’ve spotted a few moths here and there, but never an infestation, and we followed all of the steps above to ensure they don’t have anything to eat easily accessible.

The process of getting rid of clothes moths was a ton of work, and it was heartbreaking to let go of some of our favorite garments, but the process proved to be successful thanks to these pros’ tips.