Have had clothing moths for YEARS and have tried everything. Feeling hopeless…
I’m going to preface this by profusely apologizing for the really long story. Honestly, I was putting off posting or asking about this anywhere because I was afraid of sounding overly dramatic. But...this has just been my life for so long now (literally since 2018 or 2019) and I’m absolutely miserable with seemingly no solution.
Okay….so I live in a 2 bedroom NYC apartment (building built in 2013) and have been battling an infestation of clothing moths for YEARS, and cannot for the life of me figure out how to get rid of them successfully. Besides the obvious clothing destruction, these things are THE ABSOLUTE BANE OF MY EXISTENCE. They are everywhere: in bags/backpacks/purses, in empty/open pots/jars/boxes, in cups, in the couch, in my shoes, in the lowest corners on the ground and the highest corners on the ceilings. They literally seem to survive anywhere and everywhere. I can’t think of a single place where I haven’t found something moth-related.
It’s New York City….and I have 2 cats….so understandably, the dust and fur and dirt that accumulate in this apartment is a lot, but I do my absolute best (some even call it overkill) to combat this. I vacuum multiple times a day/sweep/clean as much as humanly possible and it still doesn’t seem like enough. The fur and dust seems to get easily trapped behind the sofa, behind the TV, in between the shoes on the shoe rack, behind paintings/wall hangings, in the small crevices of vacuums/hinges/wheels/drawers, literally any nook and cranny. And somehow, this instantly becomes a breeding ground for moths (and yes, these are all real examples of places I have found them). The rate at which these things can inhabit a small tuft of fur behind a bookshelf is astounding. And I can’t stop it. There were weeks where I basically turned cleaning my apartment into a full time job. And I definitely can’t spend every single day cleaning behind and between every object in my apartment or I would lose my mind. I feel like I already have. I’ve tried everything…traps, cedar, sprays, vinegar, an assortment of essential oils….everything (that wouldn’t also poison my cats). I washed as many of my clothes as I realistically could and have bagged any sweaters/clothing made of organic material that could potentially attract these moths (actually, I’ve vacuum bagged the marjotiy of my clothes regardless of material). The only thing I haven’t tried yet is getting a professional exterminator, but realistically speaking, between having pets and a million tight spaces/nooks and crannies (because….small cramped NYC apartment), this just doesn’t seem like a feasible solution.
When my sister moved out of the apartment in September, I took the opportunity to do a deep clean of all the closets and baseboards and shelves and cupboards. Washed every pillow/carpet/blanket – racked up a huge electricity bill with all the laundry I did in two weeks. I was actually hopeful for a bit because the number of moths I was finding had significantly died down. But now, they’ve seemed to pick back up again. I found one crawling up my arm while I was in bed. One flew into my eye the other day. I am so so sad because I had thought that I had finally managed to solve my problem.
During the 2 week September deep clean, it was truly horrifying just how many moths/eggs/larvae/maggots/casings I had found. They were living in places that made no logical sense. I am genuinely convinced that these things have somehow mutated and can survive literally everywhere, and I feel so defeated. I don’t know what to do. I want to cry. I have actual reoccurring nightmares about this. The images of stumbling upon armies of crawling maggots are seared into my memory. Short of 1. destroying everything I own, 2. getting rid of my cats in hopes that the lack of fur would stop giving them places to breed or 3. moving and replacing everything and starting a brand new life, I can’t think of anything else. I just feel completely hopeless. I do realize this entire post sounds extremely dramatic, but I have been fighting this fight for at least 4 years, and I can barely convey how upsetting this has been. I can't feel comfortable in my own home (and I'm home 99% of the day because I work from home). I don’t know who to go to or what else I can do. Any advice is greatly greatly appreciated.
