The Telegraph, www.telegraph.co.uk, 12th October 2016,

Clothes moths are on the march through your wardrobe – and resistance is futile

Claire Cohen

You’ll probably recognise the symptoms. Pristine white walls littered with dark smudges. Once-gripping TV shows punctuated by family members leaping from the sofa, a mad glint in their eye. More clapping than a hippie commune.

Sound familiar? Then you too are suffering from OCD. And by that I mean Obsessive Crushing Disorder – the sort of domestic mania that only a plague of moths can induce.

The warmest September since 1911 has, according to some in the know, created the perfect breeding conditions for Tineola bisselliella, or the common clothes moth. As we speak, these silvery critters are on an unstoppable march through Britain’s closets, leaving a trail of cobwebby cashmere in their wake.

No one is safe. They’ve had them in Westminster (Defra was once nicknamed the “Ministry for Moths”) and even the editor of Vogue has suffered.

My neighbour, an author, tells how he sat at home admiring all the pretty little moths on his walls and then wondered why all his clothes had holes in them.

Oh, it begins innocently enough, when you spot a tiny – almost pretty – creature fluttering across the bedroom. But before you know it, you’re wearing marigolds and a dust mask, spraying everything you own with moth napalm.

Suddenly, you understand why this harmless-looking insect is considered an omen of death in some cultures. It is the silent killer that feasts on your precious garments and then – puff – disappears to dust.

My infestation began last autumn with the horrifying discovery – upon moving a piece of furniture – that an orgy of wriggling larvae had set up home beneath. One year and a new carpet later, the battle rages on. They’re everywhere, even lurking on a pair Jimmy Choos (my moths have excellent taste).

The tragedy is, of course, that once you spot a moth it’s all too late.

An adult female lays around 50 eggs over three weeks, before dying. The resulting white grubs hatch after a few days and it’s these that cause the damage, living among the threads of your clothes for up to two years and eating fibres.

How do you tackle that? Some swear by lavender. Others cedar. Many, like me, can be found scrabbling around the local park in search of conkers. Their brown skins supposedly contain a compound that wards off moths – though, thanks to wet spring weather washing the blossom from trees, even these are in short supply.

Friends and colleagues – also waging wardrobe wars – recommend cinnamon and cloves. The price for hole-free garb, it seems, is to smell like mulled wine year-round.

Experts offer other DIY solutions. Moths, they say, hate cleanliness, and a regular overhaul of cupboards can suppress the invasion. Unfortunately in my case that means unearthing things far more perturbing than the odd holey jumper. Another suggestion is – horror of horrors – to keep the heating off. Forget it.

After all the purging and spraying, I’ve found that resignation works best – a grudging acceptance (some say denial) that I must share my home with these uninvited guests. After all, only two or three of Britain’s 2,500 species actually damage clothes.

And what is the alternative? To lock up our cashmere and silk? Ditch the sheepskin? Become a synthetic nation – crackling with static in our polyester pullovers? Never.

Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2016/10/12/clothes-moths-are-on-the-march-through-your-wardrobe---and-resis/?mc_cid=fef33d4719&mc_eid=%5BUNIQID%5D