I don’t have moths in my stash – now.  

But, I have previously had a 100% wool carpet decimated by clothes moths and a recently chomped skein of wool.

I take their potential presence in my home seriously, and not just for my beautifully curated yarn stash. I also want to protect my woollen garments, crocheted and woven blankets and basically anything that is wool-based in our home such as the Merino base layers we keep in the loft for camping and hiking trips.

This post takes you through what to look for and what I do to try to prevent moths from feasting on my yarn and woollens. It also covers what to do if you find evidence of moth activity in your wool or yarn.

I have also pulled the main points form this blog post into a vlog:

Detecting Clothes Moths

A good place to start is by being able to recognise whether you actually have clothes moths in your home.

Clothes moths are attracted to quiet, dark places like open yarn shelves, behind furniture or in your woollens wardrobe. You may see them coming out at night, so be quick to identify where from and jump to action because it’s not the adult moth that does the damage it’s their off spring.

If you are searching on your clothes or yarn stash, pay particular attention to fabric seams and deep inside cones or skeins of yarn. The moths lay their eggs in very sheltered places. These eggs grow into larvae inside a pupae which is a silky cocoon that looks like a long grain of rice.

It was the cocoon that first alerted me to the fact that our 100% wool carpet was being eaten. The cocoons were the same colour as our teal carpet and they had done untold damage that I wasn’t aware of for months!

If you see moths flying, eggs or cocoons then look for damage on your fabric, yarn or woollen items immediately. If you are lucky, you might have just caught them before and real damage is done.

Investigate Your Yarn & Woollens Often

Whether you have found moth activity or not, regularly disturbing and moving your stash, woollens and blankets will help act as a deterrent.

By rummaging through your stash every now and then and going through your woollens drawer, you can disturb adult moths and discourage them from settling and laying eggs.  This is also a good opportunity to look for signs of moth activity and you should be looking for:

• Small white fuzzy spots – this means that you probably have larvae on your items and you need to take action.
• Small holes in your items, remember to check the items thoroughly including underarms and collars.  Again, if you see holes, you need to take action.
• Cocoons that are about 10mm long and look like a furry grain of rice.

Make sure that you get right into the corners and dark places that they like to hide in.

I like to empty my shelves and give them a thorough clean down using a spray that has Cedarwood and lavender essential oils in it before putting my items back.

Moths are scent sensitive and do not like the smell of cedar or lavender.  I add mini lavender pouches in my crochet and knitting project bags, dotted around in the skeins and little crocheted containers with dried lavender flowers in to make sure that the lavender scent is everywhere.  

I also have lavender sachets in my shawl basket and in my woollens drawer.  You would be amazed by how many people protect their yarn stash, but not their finished objects.

Every now and then I fumble the sachets so that more of the essential oils with the dried lavender flowers are released and the scent continues to be present.

Regular cleaning is always going to help you keep on top of a moth infestation. This should also apply to carpets and rugs and behind heavy objects. Out moth infestation started in a very dark and quiet corner of our living room, behind a very heavy bookcase. These moths know where to hide!

Storing Yarn & Woollens to Prevent Moths

Storing your yarn in bags or containers can be a great way of creating a barrier between your yarn and moths. There is a question over letting the yarn breath in which case you will still want to store it in something like a synthetic drawstring bag. 

Keeping your stash in large sealed containers will create a barrier.  If you are lucky enough to have a cedar wood chest, this is ideal for keeping your yarn and woollens in.

I personally keep my stash in sealed cupboards. Any yarn that is outside of the cupboards is in plastic bags. I prefer the ones from IKEA because the plastic is very thick and durable and they have a double seal. These go up to 6 litre capacity which will hold about 600g of yarn.

My woollen garments are in a sealed wardrobe. I also swap my clothes out from Summer to Winter. When my winter woollens are stored for the summer, they get checked over, bagged up and stored in our spare bed which is a sealed area.

When I swap my winter wardrobe back in, I check the items again and on a frosty day, I like to hang them out in a breeze to give them a good airing. I also air our woollen blankets in this way once a year.

Our merino outdoor garments are stored in solid plastic boxes in our loft. These are moth (and spider) proof.

What to do if you find clothes Moths

So, you have investigated and sadly found clothes moths in your house. First things first, get the vacuum cleaner out and thoroughly clean up dust, debris and any eggs, larvae, cocoons or moths that you find.

I would bin the vacuum contents straight away in your outdoor bin. I have seen a moth come back down the nozzle and fly off!

Deep clean the whole area, taking particular care to clean in corners, dark spaces and behind other items. Again, I would use a cedarwood and lavender essential oil spray for an extra layer of moth prevention.

I would also check through each skein or item of clothing and vacuum any signs of moths. These items should then be:

• Bagged up and placed in your freezer for at least one week.
• Taken out of the freezer to defrost, but left in the bag.
• Placed back in the freezer for one more week.

Freezing will kill the moth eggs, larvae and adults, but it has to be done at -8°C for several days. The defrost and re-freeze is an insurance policy against any really hardy moths.

I recommend the freezing technique for any new yarn or woollen item coming into your home. Treat the freezer like a wool quarantine zone. Nothing gets into your yarn stash or wardrobe until it has been in quarantine.

Some folks like to use pheromone moth traps, but I haven’t had much success with them, so I stick with my tried an tested, rummage, clean with cedar and lavender spray and freeze incoming yarns and woollens.

When you Buy Yarn

Remember the one skein I had that got chomped? That came from a yarn shop. I left it in the paper bag in my bedroom for two weeks before I went to freeze it. My bad. I know better and should have frozen it straight away.

Who knows whether I brought a beastie home as an extra from the yarn shop, it’s possible. It’s also possible that me leaving yarn out as a moth temptation zone was my downfall. Either way, I know that it was on me to freeze the yarn and not jeopardise all of the other woollen things in our home.

Whether you are buying your yarn online, in a yarn shop, from charity shop or at a yarn show, protect the rest of your stash and woollens by freezing it before it gets stored with everything else. I encourage you to do this even if you cannot see any signs of moth infestation.

As an aside, I have a whole blog post on Tips For Second Hand Yarn Shopping just in case you also love to root about for preloved yarn bargains.

My moth Deterrent Spray

The spray I use is home made and is based on an anti-bacterial spray recipe from the wonderful Nancy Birtwhistle, which she shares here.

• 60ml white vinegar
• 150ml water
• 40ml surgical spirit
• 10 drops lavender essential oil
• 10 drops cedarwood essential oil

I pop all the ingredients into a 300ml glass spray bottle and shake it to mix. We also use a similar mix as our kitchen spray but I use cedarwood, cardamom, cinnamon and lemon essential oils instead. It is a very versatile spray to have in your home.

Let’s Be Social

I am usually found in these online places, or you can join my newsletter where I talk about all things yarn, crochet and knitting:

• YouTube crafting podcast and crochet/ knit tutorials– @faydhdesigns
• Pinterest – FayDHDesigns
• Bluesky & Flashes – @faydhdesigns.bsky.social
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