Finding worms in stored clothing. Argh!

amother

Linen

Sun, Mar 26 2017, 11:36 am

Does anyone else ever have this issue. When I take out out the storage plastic pins with clothing there are little worms all around. And it was not stored for so long. I put the clothes in the bin a few months ago.
Also I find them a lot even on the clothes on the shelves in the closet.

Why does this happen? And what can I do?

zaq

Sun, Mar 26 2017, 1:41 pm

Are you putting away things that have been worn, even briefly, and not washed? Bugs are attracted to skin and body oils, sweat, invisible remnants of food and sugar.The "worms" are larvae of moths or other bugs that feed on these remnants as well as on the clothing itself.

In future, wash or dry clean everything before storing. Throw in blocks, balls or shavings of cedar wood, which repels these little maziks, or bug repellent sachets made of a mixture of your choice of dried spices such as bay leaf, cloves, lavender flowers, cinnamon, or eucalyptus leaves. Or you can soak a cotton ball in oil of cedar, lavender, clove, bay or eucalyptus, put it in a tea ball to keep the oil off the clothing, and put that in the container with the clothes. The clothes will be mildly scented so use an oil you like. This won't kill the bugs but will repel them.

Also you obviously have these bugs in your house so you'll need to clean out every nook and cranny and eliminate any nests. Scatter repellent spices or dab the essential oils in the corners of drawers, closets and little hidey holes.

amother

Lilac

Mon, Mar 27 2017, 12:11 pm

If they are carpet beetles, after the worms (larvae) have developed, you'll then see little black beetles with white spots on, crawling up the walls. Then there will be little shed larvae skins all over your clothes, and there will be little holes in your clothes too, like moth holes.

Wash everything on hot, vacuum all areas where clothes are stored. Store all clean clothes in sealed containers.

We didn't get rid of them even after all of that, but we lowered the population until they weren't causing significant damage to our clothes. Unfortunately, they ruined a lot of our clothes. They have good taste as well Crying