FABRIC PESTS

BLACK CARPET BEETLE a, Larva; b, pupa; c, adult. Background shows damage to fabric.

FURNITURE CARPPET BEETLE a. Larva; b, pupa; c. adult. Also showing damage.

WEBBING CLOTHES MOTH a. Larva and silken feeding tube; b., cocoon; c. cocoon with cast pupal skin protruding; d, adult. Background shows typical clipping of nap. (All insects about six times natural size.)

FABRIC PESTS

Several kinds of clothes moths and carpet beetles cause damage to clothing, blankets, rugs, and furniture. They feed on articles containing wool, mohair, feathers, down, hair, or fur. The black carpet beetle can also live on cereal products and other organic matter.

The carpet beetles, or buffalo moths, are more common than clothes moths in some localities. Much of the damage attributed to clothes moths is actually caused by carpet beetles.

Only the larvae, or immature stages, of fabric pests feed and cause damage. The adults can fly and go to new places to lay eggs and start infestations. In homes and heated buildings the insects continue to develop and feed the year around. The black carpet beetle goes through about one generation a year. The other carpet beetles may have two or three generations a year. In homes there are usually two to four generations of clothes moths a year.

Control: The control of fabric pests should be directed along three lines: Thorough cleaning and good housekeeping; killing the insects in the home; protecting articles susceptible to damage. Housekeeping. Fabric pests, especially the carpet beetles, can live on the lint and other material that collects in corners, in cracks in the flooring, behind baseboards, in attics, on closet shelves, in dresser drawers, or behind radiators. Thorough cleaning to remove as much as possible of this food supply helps to control the insects. It also disturbs or removes many of the insects.

Killing fabric pests. A spray containing 2 percent of chlordane or 1/2 percent of lindane should be applied in the places where fabric pests may live in the house. The sprays can be put on with an ordinary household sprayer, or with surface sprayers that operate on the same principle as aerosol dispensers. This spraying helps kill out any lingering infestation that might spread to clothing, rugs, furniture, or other susceptible articles. These sprays should not, however, be applied on such articles.

The true aerosol sprays, which are of no value for the kind of treatment just mentioned, are for releasing insecticides into the air and can be used to spray in closets at frequent intervals to kill any clothes moth adults that might be flying around. This treatment, however, has no lasting effect and should be supplemented by other methods of control or protection.

Carpet beetles are more difficult to control than clothes moths because they wander around more, tend to be more generally distributed all over the house, and are more resistant to most insecticides. Control measures will have to be carried out more thoroughly and more extensively, therefore, against carpet beetles.

Protection against damage. Wool clothing, blankets, rugs, draperies, and upholstery can be protected in several ways from fabric pests. Effective mothproofing products are 5-percent solutions of DDT or methoxychlor in a refined oil. Those insecticides are also available in pressure sprayers similar to aerosol containers. A number cf commercial mothproofing solutions contain some of the silicofluorides.

Articles to be stored for a season or longer can be placed in a tight storage closet, garment bag, trunk, or box, with paradichlorobenzene crystals or naphthalene flakes. One pound of crystals or flakes is adequate for a trunk. Use 1 pound for each 100 cubic feet in a storage closet. The storage space must be tight enough to hold the gas formed by the slow evaporation of the crystals. The mere odor is not any protection. The gas must build up to a concentration high enough to kill the insects.

Articles may also be protected by placing them in cedar chests or in commercial storage, where fumigation, cold storage, or a combination of the two is used.

Dry cleaning kills all stages of fabric insects, but gives no protection against re-infestation. Mothproofing services, however, are offered by many cleaning establishments. Frequent sunning and thorough brushing are also an effective way to rid articles of an infestation. Frequent and thorough vacuum cleaning is helpful in preventing damage to rugs; it is well to apply a mothproofing solution to places that are hard to clean.