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Pebbles82 · 06-27-2022, 09:34 AM

I can see the reasoning there. If you can see some in the house. Although one moth can lay 200 eggs a day. So if there's one in the cage there may well be larvae and moths hatching out fairly soon. Difficult if Rodney was so upset last time.

I think I'd be tempted to wash everything and change the substrate though. If you can do it in a few hours/same day, he'd be ok in a pet carrier or temporary cage possibly. I think the main thing is being back in their own cage at night. With lots of treats etc hidden to distract them. And nip it in the bud.

Then squish anything else you see fluttering about. If it's in the cage it's almost certainly hatched out in there. They just crawl at first.

As you know I had this with Pickle about 18 months ago. I can only think I missed freezing some treat sticks or something (although I suspected the hemp mat too which hadn't been in the freezer).

A full cage clean isn't that bad unless you have to remove some things for longer.

The time I had the big outbreak was when I found the cage crawling with moths under the substrate - they do crawl before they fly. And under the cupboard where the food was. Once I did the full cage clean I didn't get any back in the cage at all - they were just all over the house and in the food cupboards! Laying eggs on walls, curtains and food cupboard etc. New ones hatching out every day. I ended up washing walls, curtains and using umpteen types of moth traps. Some of them were actually carpet moths as well (had two varieties hatch out).

Sorry!

With Pickle it caught it in time after seeing a couple of moths near the cage and nothing got into Moo's cage below (because they clearly started hatching in Pickle's cage).

I'd still be tempted to do a full cage clean to try and nip it in the bud.

06-27-2022, 09:34 AM
Pebbles82 Hamster Antics Join Date: Sep 2014 Posts: 23,533	Re: Flummoxed by the pantry moth I can see the reasoning there. If you can see some in the house. Although one moth can lay 200 eggs a day. So if there's one in the cage there may well be larvae and moths hatching out fairly soon. Difficult if Rodney was so upset last time. I think I'd be tempted to wash everything and change the substrate though. If you can do it in a few hours/same day, he'd be ok in a pet carrier or temporary cage possibly. I think the main thing is being back in their own cage at night. With lots of treats etc hidden to distract them. And nip it in the bud. Then squish anything else you see fluttering about. If it's in the cage it's almost certainly hatched out in there. They just crawl at first. As you know I had this with Pickle about 18 months ago. I can only think I missed freezing some treat sticks or something (although I suspected the hemp mat too which hadn't been in the freezer). A full cage clean isn't that bad unless you have to remove some things for longer. The time I had the big outbreak was when I found the cage crawling with moths under the substrate - they do crawl before they fly. And under the cupboard where the food was. Once I did the full cage clean I didn't get any back in the cage at all - they were just all over the house and in the food cupboards! Laying eggs on walls, curtains and food cupboard etc. New ones hatching out every day. I ended up washing walls, curtains and using umpteen types of moth traps. Some of them were actually carpet moths as well (had two varieties hatch out). Sorry! With Pickle it caught it in time after seeing a couple of moths near the cage and nothing got into Moo's cage below (because they clearly started hatching in Pickle's cage). I'd still be tempted to do a full cage clean to try and nip it in the bud.