The Lemon Fool

I have never lived in a house where moths were an issue. In last 3 weeks we are getting one or two large moths in a bathroom each day.
Only route in would appear to be the extractor fan but not convinced. Can anyone share experiences of sudden moth activity and any solutions please.

It's the time of year.

The solution is a clear plastic cup and a piece of card.
Place cup over settled moth and carefully slide the card underneath.
Find time to admire the moth's markings and perhaps identify, then release outside.

We have a gold award for a wildlife garden.

Moosehoosenew wrote:I have never lived in a house where moths were an issue.

You should be very pleased to see moths.

I remember when young one was deluged with moths outdoors at night, and they regularly came indoors, the large the small. Now with our excessive human population and obsession with cheap food we have obliterated most moths, and even here in semi-rural England in a richly planted garden, we see scarcely any.

Be very glad to see them.

V8

I get moths but not normally as early in the year as this. Our moths are in July/August. I am certainly not glad to see them except for the fact that it is then warm and summertime. They will eat holes in wool, especially expensive cashmere.

I know of no way to avoid them except by keeping garments in airtight boxes as far as I can.

Dod

I've learned a great deal about moths in my time.

1. Do not use a shotgun to eliminate them
2. Turn all lights off
3. Remove all food sources
4. Seal all doors and windows
5. Remove all heat sources

AiY

Never mind moths, what about glow worms?

I was cruising in the dark along the Oxford just south of Fenny Compton and I spotted what I thought was a discarded LED torch in the bushes. I stopped and jumped onto the bank to investigate and found a 50W GLOW WORM glowing to attract a mate. Sadly not me tho....

Said glow worm didn't seem bovvered by my 7 litre vintage diesel chuffing away slowly right next to it. I cruised the same stretch a week later and found about six more. Wonderful, a life ambition to find a glow worm in the wild achieved. YAY!

Dod101 wrote:I get moths but not normally as early in the year as this. Our moths are in July/August. I am certainly not glad to see them except for the fact that it is then warm and summertime. They will eat holes in wool, especially expensive cashmere.

I know of no way to avoid them except by keeping garments in airtight boxes as far as I can.

Dod

The OP says large moths. Clothes moths are tiny and inconspicuous. And their niche in nature is a vital one, recycling lots of junk like hair from mammals.

Moths come in to houses following the light. Or perhaps if your house has what looks like a comfortable niche to call home. Like this one (bearing in mind that butterflies are one family of moths).

Golly! You know a lot more about this than I do. I get large moths on my doors and tend to squeeze the life out of them. If you are saying that they are not the ones that attack my woollens then maybe I should be leaving them alone. However the fact is that I get a couple of months in summer when I need to protect everything in sight. Warm summer evenings are a sure warning sign.

Dod

Mike4 wrote:Never mind moths, what about glow worms?

I was cruising in the dark along the Oxford just south of Fenny Compton and I spotted what I thought was a discarded LED torch in the bushes. I stopped and jumped onto the bank to investigate and found a 50W GLOW WORM glowing to attract a mate. Sadly not me tho....

Said glow worm didn't seem bovvered by my 7 litre vintage diesel chuffing away slowly right next to it. I cruised the same stretch a week later and found about six more. Wonderful, a life ambition to find a glow worm in the wild achieved. YAY!

They're not unusual in some areas. But I've never seen so many in Blighty as in Italy, where in their season they're as abundant as the moths or bats, and more conspicuous!

Dod101 wrote:Golly! You know a lot more about this than I do. I get large moths on my doors and tend to squeeze the life out of them. If you are saying that they are not the ones that attack my woollens then maybe I should be leaving them alone. However the fact is that I get a couple of months in summer when I need to protect everything in sight. Warm summer evenings are a sure warning sign.
Dod

Please leave them alone. It's definitely not the large ones that go for clothes.
Nearly all moths are beneficial insects (and so are wasps).

https://butterfly-conservation.org/moth ... ths-matter
Although many people overlook them, moths are numerous and widespread, with over 2,500 species in Britain living in a wide range of habitats. They are a major part of our biodiversity and play vital roles in the ecosystem, affecting many other types of wildlife.

Both adult moths and their caterpillars are food for a wide variety of wildlife, including other insects, spiders, frogs, toads, lizards, shrews, hedgehogs, bats and birds. Night-flying adult moths form a major part of the diet of bats. Many birds eat both adult moths and their caterpillars, but the caterpillars are especially important for feeding the young. Some of Britain's favourite garden birds rely on caterpillars to rear their nestlings, with our blue tit chicks alone needing an estimated 35 billion a year!

https://butterfly-conservation.org/moth ... some-moths
There are only two fairly frequent species of clothes moths which cause problems in the home; the Case-bearing Clothes Moth Tinea pellionella and the Common Clothes Moth Tineola bisselliella. These moths are small with a forewing length of between 4 and 8mm.

Pesky clothing (and carpet) moths are a whole different department from the many weird and wonderful species that turn up in our doorways during the night. Moths with tiger stripes, with tabby-cat markings, and especially the snow-white moths that are said to be able to scent a mate from several miles away. Amazing.

UncleEbenezer wrote:

Mike4 wrote:Never mind moths, what about glow worms?

They're not unusual in some areas. But I've never seen so many in Blighty as in Italy, where in their season they're as abundant as the moths or bats, and more conspicuous!

Thanks for the memories. Warm summer nights camping down in southern France, with the little critters doing their stuff all the way along the river bank. (The un-illuminated areas were where the water was - and that was all useful information when you nipped outside for a midnight pee. ) And once in Greece, I came across one that was shining so brightly that I picked one up and held it in my hand. I half-expected it to burn me!

Back to moths.... Driving through the warm French nights, with the roof back and the stars above, and the car slowly filling up with the little peskies which had seen our headlights from several kilometres away and hurried across the fields to get splattered on our windscreen. Shall we ever see such glorious times again? Sometimes I doubt it.

BJ

supremetwo wrote:

Dod101 wrote:Golly! You know a lot more about this than I do. I get large moths on my doors and tend to squeeze the life out of them. If you are saying that they are not the ones that attack my woollens then maybe I should be leaving them alone. However the fact is that I get a couple of months in summer when I need to protect everything in sight. Warm summer evenings are a sure warning sign.
Dod

Please leave them alone. It's definitely not the large ones that go for clothes.
Nearly all moths are beneficial insects (and so are wasps).

Interesting nature lesson thanks. For all that i dispatch it will not make the slightest difference to the population I can assure you. However I will leave them alone in future. The ones that go for clothes are a real pest though.

Dod

Dod101 wrote: The ones that go for clothes are a real pest though.

Too right.
An Xmas pressie last year, they enjoyed before I did

The woolly I am wearing as I write, I term my eco-woolly. It provides us with warmth, nourishment and a habitat

V8

Thanks for all the info on moths.

We have removed a plant from the affected room, and there appear to be no more moths . I assume one had got in at some point in time and laid eggs in the plant pot.

Tame bat? They hoover up moths, the larger the better.

Shame it is illegal for churches to rent them out - like the use of hawks for pigeon control.
I sometimes wonder if the incense in RC and Anglo-Catholic churches might give bats a 'high': the incensole acetate in frankincense is psychoactive and the Psychoactive Substances Bill even needed a concurrent reassurance from the Home Office that priests and thurifers would not be prosecuted.

stewamax wrote:Tame bat? They hoover up moths, the larger the better.

Shame it is illegal for churches to rent them out - like the use of hawks for pigeon control.

Trust me, you wouldn't want to know a bat at close quarters. They're absolutely crawling with fleas, as I discovered once when I turned up a live pipistrelle under my floorboards. And they also have their very own colonies of bat flies and bat mites. On the plus side, most of these ectoparasites are species-specific, so they wouldn't attack humans unless they were seriously hungry; but try telling that to the ladies of the house.

BJ

bungeejumper wrote:Trust me, you wouldn't want to know a bat at close quarters.

A year ago, no, the year before, my wife was 'keeper for a day' at a local wildlife park.
The highlight for her was feeding the bats.

They have their own 'dark tower' with very low red lighting. One holds an overripe banana at arm's length, and they come down in their dozens and feed.
I was able to watch from outside... she was festooned with bats.

V8

Bat feeding sounds risky, I am sure a scientist in Dundee died from a bat bite(rabies) in Dundee.

Couple more moths here today, but not an infestation, so far.

Moosehoosenew wrote:In last 3 weeks we are getting one or two large moths in a bathroom each day.

Well.... you could omit to clean it! The medieval garderobe was so called because the stench - and in particular the ammonia liberated by urine decomposition - deters moths, and outer garments were hung there to preserve them (from the French: guard the robe). Fresh urine and perspiration attracts them so you may have a small mountain to climb before Mr Moth says Yuk.