Down with moth holes

The clothes moth, whose old French name, “teigne”, also means a nasty piece of work (AND RIGHTLY SO), is a night-flying moth whose larvae feed on keratin. Their normal job in the ecosystem is to break down the slowest-decaying parts of animal carcasses: skin, fur, claws, horns, hooves, and so on. So we’re very grateful to these extremely useful little larvae, but we’d rather they left our wool sweaters alone.

Before putting your winter clothes away, you need to make sure no moths have moved into your wardrobe. Here are a few ways to find out for sure:

In your wardrobe:
- while rummaging through your clothes or shaking out your sweaters, small silvery moths flew out (a clothes moth is just under 1 cm long),
- you found white, cotton-like cocoons in the corners of your wardrobe (spoiler: those are moth cocoons),

On your clothes:
- you’ve spotted some tell-tale holes: it looks as if a stitch has been pulled, but with no loose threads hanging from the hole,
- one of your sweaters has several holes in the same area,
- the holes are irregular and small (about 0.5 cm in diameter) and appear on animal-based fabrics, especially wool or silk.

If you answered yes to any of these, take a deep breath and follow the guide:

How to get rid of moths

Or more accurately: how to get rid of moth larvae, because as we explained above, it’s the larvae that feed on keratin and chew holes in your sweaters. Adult moths, on the other hand, don’t eat: they have a lifespan of about ten days, during which their only goal is to find a suitable place to lay their eggs. #mumlife #proudmama

Moth larvae hate being disturbed, and their survival instinct can drive them to hide in any garment or nook (even though they only eat animal fibres in the end). So I’d recommend treating all the clothes stored near your holey woollens, as well as the wardrobe itself, to be sure you get every last larva. Here’s how:

1. For delicate or wool garments, leave them in the freezer for 72 hours, then wash them on a wool cycle at 30°C: the cold and the water should kill them,
2. For garments that can tolerate it (such as cotton clothing), wash them at 60°C and then tumble dry or iron them: the heat will put an end to their destructive habits,
3. Vacuum your wardrobe from top to bottom, paying close attention to the corners, to eliminate any moth cocoons,
4. Sprinkle diatomaceous earth in the corners of your wardrobe to kill off any larvae hiding there that the vacuum may have missed. It’s an algae powder you can find in supermarkets, and it works as a mechanical insecticide. Remember to vacuum it up after a week, as it can be irritating over the long term, and of course, be sure to read the warnings on the back of the bottle,
5. For extra peace of mind, you can also use pheromone moth traps that lure any remaining male moths, which then get stuck to them: that should put a stop to these little critters’ breeding.

Once you’ve done all that, you can put your clothes back in your wardrobe with a light heart. But don’t declare victory too soon: you now need to make sure the moths don't come back.

How to stop moths from moving in

To keep moths away from your wardrobe, there are a few things you should know:

• First, moths love darkness and hate movement—yes, I’ve said it before, but it’s very important, so I’m saying it again. So don’t leave sweaters untouched in a wardrobe for years. Wear them often, and don’t buy sweaters you don’t need.
• These critters love body odour. Remember to air your sweater at the end of the day after wearing it, for example by hanging it over the back of a chair.
• Slip some cedar wood into your stack of sweaters to keep moths away. Add a drop of cedar essential oil to it every three months so it doesn’t lose its scent (and therefore its effectiveness).

Why cedar is the best moth repellent

To keep these wardrobe wreckers at bay, people traditionally used mothballs, until it emerged that they irritated the skin, eyes and airways in humans (especially children), and they were banned from sale in 2008.

With mothballs off the table, you have to fall back on the best-known natural repellent for clothes moths: cedarwood, which contains several types of alcohols that kill larvae (after all, that is how cedar protects itself from insects that might devour it). As early as 1682, there are writings recommending that woollens be stored in cedarwood wardrobes. A popular belief that was scientifically confirmed in 1952 by researchers Huddle and Mills with a crystal-clear conclusion: “Larvae exposed to 0.6 mg/l of cedarwood oil vapor had a 91% mortality rate within a week. Another batch of larvae exposed to 1-2 mg/l of cedarwood oil vapor had a 100% mortality rate within 8 to 24 hours of exposure. [...] ”. Splendid!

You can find cedar moth-repellent sticks in most supermarkets, but they are generally made from North American wood and then shaped in China. Which seems a shame: why import this kind of product when you live in a country full of cedar forests (aka France)?

So we went the extra mile at Loom and designed our own 100% local moth-repellent kit, working with these two great companies:

• Tabletterie des Lacs (in the Jura mountains, in eastern France) made us discs of cedarwood from local forests, with a hole in the centre so you can either hang them on your coat hangers or slip them between your piles of sweaters.
• Since the scent of cedarwood fades after a few months, we teamed up with Distillerie Bel Air (in the Gard, in southern France), which makes French cedar essential oil by traditional methods.

How do you repair a garment with moth holes?

You’ve finally got rid of your clothes moths for good, but their stay has left a few holes in your knitwear. To prevent these holes from getting bigger over time, I recommend mending them properly.

Option 1 - Do it yourself

Arm yourself with patience, a needle and darning wool in the right colour like this one and follow the instructions in this video, which explains step by step how to darn your holey sweaters.

There are also excellent, more in-depth courses to learn how to mend holes in your clothes:

• If you live in the Paris region, Clara from Sauve Qui Peut offers excellent 3-hour workshops on repairing holes in your clothes in a warm, supportive atmosphere.
• If you don’t live in the Paris region, I recommend Artesane’s online course: Darning and Mending: Stop Throwing Away Your Clothes

Option 2 - Leave it to the pros

You can also hand your sweaters over to specialist menders. One of them is Julie, founder of La Clinique du Pull, who is based in Paris but happily takes sweaters sent by post. She works wonders, as you can see:

For invisible, stitch-by-stitch darning like the one in the photo above, expect to pay around ten euros per hole. The result is completely invisible, but if a moth has feasted on your sweater, the bill can add up fast.

If your budget is tighter, or your sweater has so many holes it looks like a wheel of Emmental (PGI Savoie, no less), there’s the “patching” option, which is simpler to do: Julie knots together all the threads eaten by the moth larvae to prevent the hole from getting bigger, then covers the area with wool felt to hide and reinforce it. This technique costs a few euros per hole. I went for a visible patch in brightly coloured wool, but you can absolutely ask her for a tone-on-tone patch if you’d rather not look like a ladybird on ecstasy, as seen by someone colour-blind.

There you go: you now know just about everything there is to know about moths, their larvae, French cedar forests, and repair by patching. Take care of your wool sweaters and, most importantly: death to the moths!

Who am I to talk to you about garment care?
My name is Claire and I keep track of production at Loom. Basically, I try to stop things selling out on our site (OK, it’s not perfect yet, but I’m working on it), and I make sure at every stage of manufacturing that the clothes meet our quality standards.
On top of that, I’m passionate about anything that makes our clothes last longer: care, repairs and other grandma’s tricks. I love giving clothes “a little extra soul”, reworking them, repairing them, giving them another chance when nobody wants them any more. On these pages, I’ll try to pass on what I know that might come in handy.
One last thing: I’ve genuinely tested every tip you’ll find on this site and checked for myself that they work (in other words, this isn’t copied and pasted from an internet search). If you have new ones to suggest, feel free to leave a comment below this article.

Banner photo credit: Victoria Bilsborough.