How to Get Rid of Moths

Having pests in your home can be maddening. No matter what you do, they always seem to find a way into the house. And once they are in, they are extremely hard to get rid of. One of the most frustrating types of pests are moths. Not the large kind that sneak into your house when you open the door or window, but the smaller kind that eats your food and your clothes.

First, it's important to note that there are two different types of smaller moths that get into your home. The first are called Indian meal moths, and these are the kind that get into your pantry. For this reason, they are more commonly referred to as "pantry moths." These moths are brown and small, roughly the size of the tip of your fingernail. These can burrow into your flour, cereal and other dry goods. The other type are clothes moths, and these, obviously, eat your clothes.

There are many ways to get rid of these moths. I don't recommend moth balls as they contain chemicals that can be dangerous to you, your children and your pets. They also smell terrible. Here are a couple of my alternative suggestions.

When we had birds, we had a terrible time with pantry moths. They always seemed to get into the bird seed, no matter how tightly we kept it closed. Here's a tip I learned: Put the birdseed in the freezer when you first buy it. Sometimes, the moths can actually be coming from the birdseed, so putting it into the freezer will kill any eggs or larvae in the seed.

If you don't have birds, there are still a lot of things you can do. Make sure everything in your home is clean. This sounds pretty obvious, but sometimes the crooks and crannies of closets can be missed, and this is where moths can hatch. Make sure to vacuum out as much as you can to get rid of moth larvae. Clean out your vacuum bag regularly to get any surviving larvae out of the vacuum itself.

Once that's taken care of, get some traps from your local hardware store. You can also purchase them online. These are glue traps that attract the moths. You can catch a lot of moths really quickly with these traps.

If you have clothes moths, try putting a cedar block in the back of your closet. The scent will keep them away, and is much safer than moth balls. Just lightly sand it ever so often to renew the scent.

Hang up some bay leaves or mint leave around. The smell will deter the moths and a lot of other pests too.

If nothing seems to be working, it may be time for an exterminator. However, if you can pinpoint the source of the moths and takes steps to get rid of them, you shouldn't need the exterminator.