Mar 5, 2012 – Put The Heat On Clothes Moths?
QUESTION:
My question concerns clothes moths. I was talking with a prospective customer where another company said they would use heat mitigation to kill the clothes moths. I have heard of heat for bed bugs, but not clothes moths. The home builder said due to the quality of the wood he doesn't recommend it. What have you heard about this approach? What about an IGR?
ANSWER:
Well, my mind is swirling right now with these various issues, but let's begin with the home builder's thoughts. My first question is why would the builder of the home be involved with this pest problem now? Is he a family friend of this customer or is he somehow involved with the pest problem? I can see bringing a builder back in for a wood infesting beetle problem, but clothes moths.......? However, I don't know quite what he means by the "quality" of the wood except he may be concerned that a high heat could affect some of the wood products, such as plywoods or particle board or other construction materials. But, as we have seen now from the use of heat for bed bugs, it is not necessary to take the heat so high that it is going to ruin wood products or finishes. All it takes is about 130 degrees for a few hours and all stages of insects are likely to be killed, as long as they were exposed to that heat.
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My question concerns clothes moths. I was talking with a prospective customer where another company said they would use heat mitigation to kill the clothes moths. I have heard of heat for bed bugs, but not clothes moths. The home builder said due to the quality of the wood he doesn't recommend it. What have you heard about this approach? What about an IGR?
ANSWER:
Well, my mind is swirling right now with these various issues, but let's begin with the home builder's thoughts. My first question is why would the builder of the home be involved with this pest problem now? Is he a family friend of this customer or is he somehow involved with the pest problem? I can see bringing a builder back in for a wood infesting beetle problem, but clothes moths.......? However, I don't know quite what he means by the "quality" of the wood except he may be concerned that a high heat could affect some of the wood products, such as plywoods or particle board or other construction materials. But, as we have seen now from the use of heat for bed bugs, it is not necessary to take the heat so high that it is going to ruin wood products or finishes. All it takes is about 130 degrees for a few hours and all stages of insects are likely to be killed, as long as they were exposed to that heat.
My second thought is that the proliferation of bed bugs has led to a proliferation of companies and products using heat to control them, so now the ability to do whole house or whole room heating is mainstream, and costs have probably come down as well. There will be those faction of customers who prefer to use something "non-toxic" for pest management, and heating done properly kills the bugs without any chemical use. Having said this, for bed bugs some companies using heat still use residual dusts and other standard insecticides within voids and other difficult hiding places, given the nature of bed bugs to be hard to control.
My third thought is that heating the entire structure seems like serious overkill for controlling clothes moths. These insects are feeding on something that should be relatively easy to find and dispose of, although taking the time to go through everything and deal with the infested materials may not be an attractive way to spend a day. Perhaps this is why the customer is entertaining the idea of avoiding all of that searching and just having the whole darned place heated. But, I myself would prefer to remove all the clothing from the closet and inspect susceptible items carefully. Then, when you do find the infested wool blanket or sweater or lined gloves or slippers you can decide how badly it is damaged and what you will need to do with it. It may be that only a few items are infested and these can be laundered or dry cleaned or even just tossed into the hot dryer for a cycle at a fraction of the cost of whole house heating.
It may be other items that are infested, such as animal hair, feathers, and even some stored food products. Some clothes moths also will feed on fungus, and perhaps there is a moisture problem the moths are telling this homeowner about, and this would need to be discovered and corrected. Heating and killing all the bugs might overlook some other serious problems. I would prefer to see a careful inspection done, the source determined and dealt with at that level, and if you have a lot of wandering moth larvae or adult moths those can be vacuumed or killed with applications of residual insecticides in the proper places. You then can also advise the customer about the proper storage of susceptible fabrics so that the problem does not reoccur.
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