My Battle With Moths: How I FINALLY Won
Hello people of Reddit! This is going to be a long post, but if you’ve dealt with or are dealing with moths, you know how distressing it can be. They are notoriously difficult to get rid of once you have an infestation. I’ve been dealing with an infestation for about two years now, and we’re finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, so I figured I would write up as much information as I can about our war with these little buggers, share what worked and what didn’t, and hopefully help out anyone who is in the thick of their own moth battle. So, without further ado, here’s a detailed account of how I finally defeated the evil.
I first noticed the presence of moths in our house in the spring of 2024. I still don’t definitively know where they came from, but I did acquire some large batches of secondhand yarn around that time from various sources, and we are big thrift enjoyers so there’s lots of possible sources. Learn from my mistakes. If you’re into thrifting or acquiring anything secondhand, closely inspect any fabric or yarn that’s coming into your home. IMMEDIATELY upon bringing it inside, freeze it for 48 hours if you can, wash it in hot water if you can, and give any furniture a thorough vacuuming. I did not do any of these things and paid dearly for it.
My second mistake was waiting too long to take action. I saw a few moths flying around the house, but didn’t take much notice. I was living in Missouri at the time and it’s very common to have bugs coming into the house as the weather gets warm. I figured they just came in through a window, and I didn’t even know what they were. It took a couple months of seeing more and more every day before I finally thought to Google what they might be, and I was horrified to discover the truth.
Our first attempted treatment was a failure. We deep cleaned every corner of the house we could, went through all of the yarn and threw out anything that looked compromised, washed every article of clothing and linens we owned, wiped down all of our surfaces with undiluted white vinegar, but they stubbornly hung on. They even managed to follow us to our new home when we moved to Minnesota, and we found ourselves killing multiple of them a day.
Our second treatment, the most recent, has been much more successful, and I’m hopeful we’ll actually achieve full eradication this time! Here’s what we did this time around. For reference, I live in a ~1000 sq ft fully carpeted apartment (minus the kitchen) and this took three people and about two and a half long days.
Firstly, we went about it much more systematically, cleaning one room from start to finish before moving on to the next. This prevented clean rooms from getting re-contaminated as we went. We moved all the furniture and vacuumed every square inch of the carpet. We also took everything out of the dressers and off the shelves so we could wipe them down with undiluted white vinegar. After vacuuming, we used a permethrin spray (more detail on that later), let it dry, and vacuumed again. Pay extra attention to closets, corners, any nooks and crannies that are dark and not often touched. Those are moths’ favorite places to hang out and breed. We found the buggers hiding INSIDE OF OUR THERMOSTAT. Not gonna lie, I took that a little personally. Once a room was cleaned, we closed the door and opened all the windows to let lots of fresh air circulate. We also used clean rooms to store items that had been inspected and confirmed to be moth-free.
The best way I found to inspect items is to bring it to a room with good lighting or, even better, to a window where natural light can come in. You’re looking for frass, aka moth egg casings. It kind of looks like dandruff. Take extra care to check under collars, in pockets, under seams, between the pages of books, those little hidden spots where they can burrow in unnoticed. This process is super tedious but it will save your life in the end. Anything that can go through the wash should go through on the hottest cycle, and through the dryer on the hottest setting. You can also add a splash of white vinegar to the wash cycle for extra security. Anything not machine washable needs to either be dry cleaned or frozen. For freezing, leave it in the freezer for at least 48 hours, then at room temperature for 24, and back in the freezer for 48. Repeat this 2-3 times. This will take a while, so get a bunch of vacuum-seal space bags to pack stuff away after it’s washed so it won’t get recontaminated.
Next, like I mentioned before, we treated our home with a permethrin spray. I think this is one of the key things we did. I was very hesitant about this as we have three cats, and I’ve heard countless times that permethrin can be deadly to them. However, upon doing further research, I learned that most cases of permethrin toxicity come from a cat coming into contact with dog flea/tick treatment, which generally has a concentration of 40-45% permethrin, while the majority of bug sprays have a concentration of 0.5%, and are safe for cats to be around once dry. Still, out of an abundance of caution, we removed our fur babies from the home for two days while we did the treatment, and circulated plenty of fresh air throughout the home to ensure the treatment was completely dry before bringing them back home. Permethrin is not toxic to dogs or humans, only cats, so if you don’t have cats in the home you can be much more liberal with this. It kills almost any flying insect on contact, and stays effective for around 30 days after treatment. We used the Ben’s Clothing & Gear Insect Repellant Spray, and went through about 2 full 24oz bottles for a ~1000 sq ft fully carpeted apartment.
The instructions say to spray the garment or area until it is visibly soaked, but we used a good deal less, just a light mist over everything. It dried within minutes. We sprayed every inch of the carpet and all the furniture, even the cat trees, and none of our cats have had any kind of reaction since we did this almost a month ago now. I’m not a vet, so please take this as anecdotal evidence only, and talk with your vet if you’re nervous about using permethrin in a home with cats.
Pretty much every other product we’ve used came from Dr. Killigan’s. We’ve been going through their pheromone traps for two years, changing them every 30 days or so, and the Six Feet Under spray is amazing for kill-on-contact when you see an adult moth on the wall. I used the Dust to Dust Insect Powder in the vents and along baseboards, and placed Cedar Chip Canisters in all the closets. I can’t sing the praises of Dr. Killigan’s products enough. Everything they sell is made from natural ingredients, safe for kids and pets, and it WORKS. I would recommend buying directly from their website instead of on Amazon, because their customer service team is much more helpful than Amazon’s if you have any questions or issues with a product. Not sponsored, just a very happy customer!
The last thing that I think really turned the tide in our favor is trichogramma wasps. For the unfamiliar, these little guys are tiny, almost microscopic little wasps whose favorite snack is moth eggs. They hunt down the eggs and eat the larvae from the inside out before they even hatch. The trick is to keep ordering and deploying them weekly for at least 2-3 months, because moth breeding cycles are about a month long. We got ours from Arbico Organics and have been very pleased with the pricing and ease of ordering, plus their customer service team is awesome at helping you figure out what species and quantity you need. 6 cards seems to be the perfect amount for our home, so adjust your order accordingly based on the size of your home.
We did the big clean over the last weekend of April 2026, and have slowly been working on getting all of our items back where they go. I still have a lot of clothes and yarn in space bags, but all the furniture is back in its spot. The problem isn’t completely gone yet. I still see anywhere from 1-3 adults a day, and promptly kill them, but it seems to be getting fewer and farther between as the days go by. I vacuum every Friday and Sunday, and sometimes an extra vacuum on a weeknight if I find the energy, and a few times a day I do a “patrol” around the apartment to look for any evildoers that might be fluttering around. It’s disheartening to see them, I won’t lie, but I know we’re moving in the right direction. At the time of writing this (May 19^(th) 2026), I haven’t seen a single moth in about two days. I plan to keep ordering the trichogramma wasps until I've gone at least three weeks without a single sighting, as is recommended by Arbico. I am feeling hopeful for the first time in two years that this nightmare might be coming to an end. This whole thing has been incredibly distressing for me, as someone with OCD (one of my OCD themes is even about bugs) and an avid knitter who had to say goodbye to about ¾ of my yarn. I wouldn’t wish it on anybody.
I can’t imagine I forgot anything in 1600+ words, but please feel free to ask questions or share any other strategies you’ve found to be successful. If you’re dealing with moths, just know there is hope. It’s not easy and will make you feel crazy, but with the right tools and some extra pairs of hands, freedom is possible! Good luck and godspeed to you all!