Erm - unwanted critters

[Pebbles82]

This moth thing will drive me demented before long! When we were away for a few days I thought how lovely it was not to keep having to squash the odd moth before I went to bed, or have to be ultra careful around where to put food things or seal everything up.

The first night we got back there were four in the living room - clearly having a ball while I was away.

Today I was trying to find something at the back of my pots and pans cupboard and a moth was in there. Then another one. I pulled everything out and found four in there and eggs inside a glass dish aargh! The amount of stuff in that cupboard was unbelievable! And I have had to wash it all up again and clean out the cupboard with vinegar.

I do remember I had a bag of hamster food on the bottom shelf for a while in there, so that could have been the source.

But the thing is - at the back of the kitchen cupboards there is a gap at the top and it's open between there and the wall - I reckon they are nesting/laying eggs behind the kitchen cupboard and there's no way I can rip all the kitchen units out to clean behind there. So if this doesn't do the trick I reckon I'll have to get pest control out to set off a smoke bomb while we decamp somewhere with Charlie for the day.

The clothes moths traps have caught a couple of things, but one isn't a moth lol.

I'm not really going demented but it is extremely annoying - never had anything like it in my life! Even an ant invasion was preferable (had those before).

[Pebbles82]

I still have quite a moth problem. Yesterday I was having a bit of spring clean. We have a sideboard with all the board games underneath in the dining/kitchen area. I pulled out the board games and there moths crawling on them and on the carpet under the sideboard! They were also inside it and seem to like my baking tins where there were clumps of either grubs or cocoons (very small brown things). So another big clean up and hoover. This morning I saw one sitting on the hemp mat on Charlie's shelf.

I think it could be a long time before I get rid of these! I don't want to do a big cage clean of Charlie's cage just yet as he's had a few stresses recently so I'll give it a few more days. I have been so careful in his cage, not to leave food lying around and cleaning out his food bowl every day, and his hoard is well buried, but I guess if they are in the room they can easily go in the cage and lay eggs again.

I do wish the pheromon traps had worked! I thought the clothes/carpet moth traps were working at first but all I caught was a spider and a mosquito in them! The indian meal moth traps didn't catch anything either.

I'm not so creeped by it now - it's just like finding any other insect but I would like my living environment back to normal. I can't clean everything in the house with soapy water! The monopoly money would go all soggy!

I think I'd advise freezing all hamster food and then keeping it in airtight boxes after freezing (apparently eggs can be dormant and hatch later). I'm pretty sure this started in my pots and pans cupboard where I had three open bags of food at one time - Harry Hamster, Burgess Supahamster and Oxbow essentials. Or if you can't freeze it, keep it in an airtight box.

[CMB]

A wonder if a light trap would work. Moths are often attracted to lights.

[AmityvilleHams]

Not sure how anyone feels about them but I know that the light based zapper things do work with insects!They might not be the easiest to find but I'm not entirely sure about that so it would take a bit of searching before we can necessarily say that they're harder to find,since they could be very easy to find.

[Pebbles82]

Apparently these food moths don't like light! They only come out at night and hide in dark places. I actually caught two in a trap after I moved it to the floor - but it was a clothes moth trap. Trying the food moth trap in the same area now. It's something to "get on with" but it is creating a lot of extra work, constant major clean outs - and cost - the pheromone traps aren't cheap and I had to buy all the storage boxes for the food too.

The problem, as I understand it is - they can lay eggs anywhere - tiny cracks in walls or skirtings, behind kitchen cupboards, anywhere really. The eggs can hatch at any time between 30 days and 300 days. They are too small to see. Short of sandblasting the whole room and everything in it, I don't think I can get rid of all the eggs.

So it's a case of just having major cleans whenever I find some in a certain area.

[AmityvilleHams]

It does seem incredibly annoying just seeing about it!Hopefully the different traps work well though

[Pebbles82]

Thanks! Yes it is annoying lol! But I do manage to forget about now and then.