Seed moths making us crazy!

[Melissa2010B]

We have 5 birds, and this past several months have begun seeing seed moths.

I've sealed up and taken away any and all food sources ( checked the pantries, everything! ) but they are all over the house. Moth traps collect them, fill up, then there are more. And the traps aren't cheap, now up to 2 for $10!

They're laying eggs in places where there isn't any food. I just found them inside the outer wrappers of some toilet paper packs that we had stored for emergencies. The larvae! How can they do this when there's no more food source?! All our bird food bags are sealed up now.

How can we decisively get rid of them, without having to evacuate burn the whole house down? ( not an acceptable option )

 

[Featheredsamurai]

Sorry to hear about your sead moth problem

At my house we had a moth, and meal beetle problem in the kitchen. We tried controlling it with moth catchers but it never seemed to capture all of them. My parents suggested throwing out all the dried goods, so we(my step dad and I) went threw everything that had been opened and tossed it out. Only unused/sealed dried goods were kept. That made a HUGE difference and soon the moths were under control.

The moths were mostly just in the kitchen, not sure what you could do if they're all over you house. I've never had problems with my bird food, maybe because I never buy seed.

 

[MonicaMc]

Freeze all seeds and pellets for at least 72 hours. Store in air tight containers afterwards.

Flour? Cereal products? Any other grain items? If it's not in an air tight container, toss it! Larvae will chew through plastic and paper!

Vacuum *EVERYTHING*!!!!! The floor, the ceiling, the walls, the curtains. Wash all clothes and blankets!


Another trap you can use that might be cheaper... place a dish of water down and put a lamp on the water at night. Moths fly into the light and may eventually fly into the water.



You can get rid of them! I often trapped them in empty water bottles, then gave the bottles to the cats. They loved it! Likewise, I'd walk around the house, squirting moths out of the air or off the walls.... with the cats following. Don't know why they liked eating them!

 

[strudel]

Those pantry moth traps aren't intended to catch them all, the pheromone in them attracts the males so they can't mate with the females, so if you're getting new ones hatching and the traps filling up, you'll need to keep replacing the traps until every last hatchling male has been stuck. I had a huge infestation, they laid in the grooves of the lids of plastic containers and in the corners of the cupboards. I ended up ditching all packets of dried food and contents, washed everything, thwacked any I could see, blah blah blah. Got rid of them.

They've arrived again.... They come in on the seed packets or with the millet sprays or other stuff from the feed store. I understand that putting new stuff in the freezer is the way to go, as MonicaMc said. I'm going to have to start doing that, they drive me up the wall.