How to get rid of kitchen moths in an apartment. Instructions on how to get rid of moths in the kitchen: the best methods and remedies. Traditional methods for repelling moths

How to get rid of kitchen moths in an apartment. Instructions on how to get rid of moths in the kitchen: the best methods and remedies. Traditional methods for repelling moths

Food moths in an apartment are a source of many troubles. Moreover, moths in cereals appear even in kitchens where perfect order and cleanliness. For effective fight with pests you will need minimal knowledge about their life and what if your kitchen is chosen by completely different types of insects?

Food moth - photo, description

An inconspicuous gray or brown butterfly, about a centimeter long, flying chaotically around the room, landing on the surface of the ceiling, walls and food, annoyingly circling right before your eyes - this is a food moth. Its life is short, only half a month, but the larvae exist quietly for two months, and they are the ones who contaminate food. The adult moth drinks water (which is why it can be seen in a container of water or near a sink) and does not eat anything. But the harm they cause is colossal; one moth lays up to four hundred eggs, from which the same larvae then appear, crawling in the rump.

Food moth - types:

  • nutty,
  • barn,
  • mill fire,
  • cereals and many others.

But if a moth lives in the kitchen, then it only eats food and is absolutely indifferent to clothes.

Moths in cereals and other products - damage from insects

Food moths can be seen in bags of flour, bags of cereals, tea, some spices, nuts, and even in dog or cat food. Usually she appears in the apartment with food in which larvae have appeared. It is not uncommon to buy such products in a store. This occurs due to poor quality processing of goods, unfavorable storage conditions and other negative factors. It's warm in the kitchen and moths multiply at the speed of light, infecting other products. In some cases, food moths enter the apartment through ventilation from neighbors, but such cases are very rare.

The larvae, in addition to eating food, easily chew the bags in which they are stored, leave their skin and feces in them, and dead larvae remain there. You should not eat contaminated cereals or any other foods.

Remedies for moths

How to completely get rid of food moths in an apartment

Getting rid of pests is a difficult process, but independent control can yield positive results. Remedies used against food moths are divided into traditional methods and chemicals. But before you get rid of food moths in your apartment, you need to identify the source of the infestation.

Before processing, you first need to find out which of the products caused the appearance of insects. Do an audit, take out all the contents from cupboards and cabinets. If there is the slightest trace of infection, throw away the food without regret. Pour what the pests haven’t reached into jars or tightly sealed containers; in extreme cases, store them temporarily in the refrigerator.

Wipe the cabinet and shelves where moths are found in cereals with soap and water, and then rinse. Carefully go over the surfaces with a sponge soaked in vinegar. Let the cabinet dry completely with the doors open.

How to get rid of food moths in an apartment using folk remedies

  1. In the fight against moths, the first aid is lavender. Bunches of grass should be placed in cabinets.
  2. Cloves and bay leaves - the smell of spices is extremely unpleasant to insects.
  3. The moth is afraid of the aroma of garlic and will leave its habitat if you remove the husk from the vegetable and place the cloves on shelves and in cabinets.
  4. Another remedy that nature gives us is mint. It also needs to be laid out in cabinets.

How to get rid of food moths in an apartment using chemicals

Moths in cereals can be destroyed using insecticides. Efficiency is high, but they must be used with
extreme caution due to high toxicity and negative effects on health.

Insecticides against moths:

  • "Eslanadez" in liquid form or concentrate
  • "Breeze" emulsion
  • "Armol"
  • "Combat"
  • "Antimol" tablets and aerosol
  • "Raptor" aerosol
  • "Dezmol" tablets
  • “Prayer” records
  • “Gela”, “Arsenal”, “Zitol”, “Fitocide” records.

There are traps whose smell attracts moths, especially males, which helps reduce the population.

Moths in the kitchen are not only flying moths, but also their pupae, larvae and eggs.

  • This means that in order to eliminate pests forever, you need to deal with them comprehensively - find and eliminate the source, clean the furniture/ceiling, throw away everything that was infected and process potentially infected products.

Food moths happen different types. Most often in the kitchen of a city apartment you can find: flour moth, a little less often - cocoa moth (very similar to clothes moth) and southern barn moth (fighting it is more difficult than others). Where do they come from even in the purest kitchen cabinets?

  • Tiny, almost invisible eggs end up in the kitchen in packages of cereals, cereals, biscuits, dried fruits, flour, spices and other groceries. Then, within a week, they hatch into food moth larvae, which subsequently pupate and turn into moths.

In this material you will find step by step instructions about how to get rid of food moths, what preventive measures to take to avoid them reappearance and how to save food if you hate to throw it away.

Step 1. Looking for the outbreak and contaminated products

Moth eggs look like small white clumped grains, similar to semolina. The larvae first look like small whitish worms, and then they grow to 1.27 cm and have black or brown heads. Another clear sign of food contamination is cobwebs, as in the photo below.

To get rid of food moths, the first thing you need to do is:

  1. Inspection of kitchen cabinets and products. Inspect all supplies stored in kitchen cabinets - you need to find not only the source, but also products already contaminated with larvae and eggs.
  • Don’t forget to check unpacked groceries as well, because moths easily eat through cardboard, foil and polyethylene.
  • Pay special attention to the edges of the lids of the jars - there may be moth cobwebs on them.
  • Remember that not only groceries can be contaminated, but also animal feed, bird seeds, fishing bait, that is, almost everything that is not stored in the refrigerator.
  1. Inspection of the ceiling. The ceiling, ceiling skirting boards, the edges of the wallpaper and the base of the chandelier. Moths love to hide in dark crevices and corners.
  2. Inspect cabinet tops. Here you can also see moth cocoons.

By the way, if you doubt whether there are moths in your kitchen at all or, say, whether you managed to get them out after cleaning, then inspect the room at night - adult moths will gather around a burning chandelier.

Step 2. We carry out a total cleanup

  1. Eliminate the source and products showing obvious signs of contamination. As soon as you find which product has become a source of insect spread, wrap it tightly in a plastic bag and throw it away immediately, or better yet, burn it completely.
  2. Clean thoroughly. Empty kitchen cabinets and take out the shelves and then vacuum them and internal walls wardrobe, Special attention paying attention to corners and crevices.
  • A vacuum cleaner (without an attachment or with a small attachment) will attract hidden moths and prevent unnoticeable eggs from remaining in the closet. This method is very effective, so if you don’t have a vacuum cleaner, you should ask your friends for one. The main thing is to throw away the bag after the procedure or freeze it in the freezer for 3-4 days.
  1. Wash all containers and jars. This can be done with a vinegar solution or laundry soap. The container containing the contaminated food should be frozen for 3-4 days or heated in the microwave for 5 minutes.
  2. Vacuum the ceiling. If you find moth settlements on the ceiling, ceiling skirting boards, tops of cabinets, near the chandelier, and also under the edges of peeling wallpaper, then vacuum these places as well.

Step 3. Kill the adults and set up traps

How to catch adult individuals that have already scattered into the corners of cabinets and kitchens? Males (by the way, harmless, but fertilizing females) can be caught using glue trap(photo below). The principle of its operation is simple - a trap treated with female pheromone attracts males and “catches” them, and without males, the moth, of course, will not be able to reproduce. Thus, pheromone traps will help prevent the reappearance of insects.

  • You can buy such a trap for 200-300 rubles in online stores and household chemical stores.

Females will have to be killed using traditional methods - with a fly swatter or rolled up newspaper, since they fly poorly and slowly, this is not so difficult to do.

Step 4. Process potentially contaminated products

So, you've thrown out the source product and items that show obvious signs of contamination, but what about the rest of the supplies that appear clean on the outside or were only slightly contaminated?

The easiest way is to throw them away, but if you wish, you can save potentially contaminated food in the following two ways:

  • Having previously sifted and sorted out the cereal, flour or other product, keep it in the freezer or on the balcony (in winter time) at least 3-4 days.
  • After pouring the product onto a baking sheet, heat it in the oven at 60 degrees for at least 40 minutes. Before warming it up, of course, you need to clean it.

Keep in mind that the first processing method, although longer, retains all the vitamins and nutritional properties food.

Step 5. We carry out prevention and protect products

  1. New or cold/heat processed foods (including pet food) should be placed in glass, thick plastic or metal containers/jars with tight-fitting lids. This will protect supplies from penetration by moths and prevent them from escaping outside the container. Let us remind you that cardboard, paper, foil and cellophane bags are easily eaten by it.

  1. In the fight against moths in the kitchen, a folk recipe is also useful - storing products with natural repellents:
  • With a couple of bay leaves;
  • With peeled but not cut garlic (a couple of heads is enough);
  • With orange peels.

  1. You can also place one of the following on the shelves, either: lavender sprigs, birch leaves, geranium, wormwood, rosemary, laundry soap or strong-smelling essential oils. For example, fir oil is suitable, which you can moisten a cotton pad with and leave it in the closet.

Remember that these folk remedies They will repel adult moths, preventing them from laying eggs in products and on shelves, but they will not affect the larvae. Moreover, if you suddenly place a package of contaminated cereal on a shelf with lavender, the moth larvae will not die in it, and the butterflies that appear later will no longer be afraid of the smell of lavender. That is why it is necessary to combat domestic pests comprehensively.

And a little more about prevention

The following tips will help you avoid the recurrence of moths:

  • Try not to let food sit for more than 2-4 months and, of course, do not store supplies that have passed their expiration date.
  • Store foods you rarely use in the refrigerator.
  • Buy dry foods in small quantities so you can eat them within a couple of months.
  • Buy groceries only from famous manufacturers and, if possible, check the quality of goods in the store. To be sure, freeze freshly purchased cereals, cereals, flour, nuts, dried fruits and other products for 3-4 days (in dry form).
  • Animal food, such as bird seeds or fishing bait, should not be stored in the kitchen.

This is a small light gray butterfly, up to a centimeter long. It moves very quickly and chaotically, and it is extremely difficult to catch it with your hands. Most likely, you will not find it in your kitchen right away.

Firstly, because it flies at night, in the dark, and secondly, because it hides well. The larvae of food moths harm food supplies, while the butterflies themselves do not feed, but only leave clutches.

The larvae are very voracious. They chew food and leave traces of their activity.

How to get rid of food moths? Food moths can spoil almost any dry product: cereals, dried fruits, dried vegetables, dry pet food, confectionery, nuts or even tea. In contaminated food you will find clumps of cobwebs and small white worms. Of course, you cannot eat such products.

Where does it come from? Typically, the pest enters the home along with purchased products that were improperly stored before sale. Less commonly, moths can fly from a neighboring apartment to warm time of the year.

How to escape

What to do if your place of residence and gets to the kitchen:

How to get rid of food moths in cereals?

If you see small worms with black heads or adult butterflies in cereals, flour or dog food, then throw these products away without hesitation. If you see only a small amount of “cobwebs” in a bulk product, then such a product can be saved.

If the moth has slightly poisoned the flour, cereals or beans, then pour the product onto a plate, baking sheet and heat in the microwave for 15 minutes. You can also use the oven minimum temperature(50 – 70 degrees). Freezing is also considered a reliable method. To do this, place a hermetically sealed bag of food in the freezer for a couple of days. In the future, you can process all dry products that you buy for future use this way. This good idea for prevention.

How to get rid of food moths at home? Internal surfaces cabinets should be washed with water and vinegar and then dried. Carry out the same simple processing with all the cans and other containers for bulk goods that you have in the house.

Needless to say, in the future you need to store dry products in glass, plastic and tin cans with tight-fitting lids, not in open store-bought packages.

For the future, set up a trap such as the Raptor, or the lesser known but very effective Aeroxon. Place it between jars with those products that especially attract the pest. This trap works by attracting butterflies. They fly into the trap and stick to the sticky tape.

This way you can subsequently control the presence of moths in your home: if you see a new pest on the trap, .

Another way: do not lure, but rather scare away. The main thing in this matter is the pungent odor, which the insect cannot stand.

How to get rid of food moths using folk remedies? There are a number of time-tested tips that will help repel moths from your supplies and drive them out of the house:

  • garlic. Place the peeled cloves between jars containing the products you want to protect. When the teeth are dry and no longer smell, replace them with fresh ones.
  • geranium. Place it on the kitchen window, where adults are likely to fly into. The specific smell of this plant will not allow them to stay in your home.
  • bay leaf and other spices. You can try oregano, pepper or cloves. Place them in potentially hazardous areas.

Use sachets to pack spices: fabric bags that will protect your shelves from clogging and prevent the strong smell of spices from deepening in the kitchen.

  • strong-smelling herbs: lavender, thyme, sweet clover and others. This will not only help in fighting moths, but also a cute decorative element: tie dry fragrant herbs into small bunches and hang them inside and outside the cabinets.
  • citrus fruits, or rather their dry peels. This is a well-known repeller harmful insects, and also a neutralizer. The crusts can not just be laid out on shelves, but placed directly in a jar with dried fruits, cereals, and flour. In any case, they will not be superfluous there.

If the moth doesn't disappear

What to do if moths appear again and again? Many housewives, tired of endless attempts to get rid of an uninvited neighbor, resort to insecticides and other poisons.

I don't think it's worth doing this anyway. But if you start using an insecticide, do not abuse it, do wet cleaning more often and sometimes change the drug.

Let's say you do everything possible for prevention: you heat or freeze the food that you bring into the house, use a trap, often ventilate the shelves and wipe them with vinegar, but moths still appear often and persistently?

Then we can assume that there is some way that the pest constantly gets into your kitchen. Try to find and neutralize this “channel”.

Anti-mosquito nets may help you, which need to be installed not only on the windows, but also on ventilation and any other exits leading to neighboring apartments. Glue and coat all the smallest cracks through which the pest can enter the kitchen. Together with others in simple ways This fight will certainly help you get rid of kitchen moths for a really long time.

Fighting a pest like moths is a difficult task. The best method is to get into the habit of not neglecting simple preventive measures. Geranium on the window, a bouquet of lavender, reliable grille on ventilation, orange peels and garlic cloves in jars...

Even in a perfectly clean kitchen, moths can flutter around. Its larvae hatch in cereals, dried fruits and other groceries, especially those bought in bulk. To overcome this scourge, hard work lies ahead, from a global audit of all supplies to general cleaning. Therefore, we have prepared tips to help housewives that will help them find uninvited guests and a selection of proven ways to get rid of food moths in the kitchen using affordable and healthy means. Choose!

First, let's learn more about the pest itself. People call food moth different kinds moths and moths - small moths of gray, brown or yellow-gray color, whose larvae feed on a variety of dried foods and groceries.

On a note! Adult food moths live 2-3 weeks and manage to lay from 150 to 350 eggs during this period.

Most often it starts in the kitchen:

  1. Mill moth or flour moth is a worldwide common pest. Main habitats: grain processing and bread factories, factories producing confectionery and animal feed. The larvae of these moths feel great in the vicinity of any grain crops, baked goods, flour, bran, pasta, dried fruits, nuts, mushrooms, where they weave cocoons for themselves from the finest cobwebs. Look at the photo to see what meal moths look like.

Fruit moth prefers dried fruits, but can also feed on other plant products

  1. Granary (grain) moths - can get into your home with purchased wheat, oats, corn, buckwheat or legumes. The butterflies themselves are small in size and grain-colored, which helps them remain undetected for a long time. And their caterpillars are masters of camouflage - they gnaw a hole inside the seed and live there until they transform into a butterfly.

If you have the same moth in your kitchen as in the photo, check your grain supplies immediately

On a note! The type of moth that has settled in the kitchen can be determined by the size and color of the butterflies, but the larvae are visually all the same.

Development cycle and harm to humans

Microscopic eggs, which most often end up in our homes along with food, hatch into larvae after a few days. This happens because the kitchen is designed simply for them. ideal conditions: the temperature rarely drops below 20 degrees, air humidity varies between 50-70%, and groceries are stored in cabinets closed from sun rays.

Over the course of 10-14 days, the caterpillars actively grow, because they do not experience a lack of food. And then they pupate into a cocoon, from which a moth flies out two weeks later. After mating, females lay eggs in places where their future offspring can easily find the food they need, and soon die.

Life cycle moths

On a note! Contrary to popular belief, food moths do not spoil food or eat clothes - digestive system they are not developed. Therefore, the main pests are caterpillars. They are the ones who feed on grains and other bulk products, forming lumps and “cobwebs” in them. And for damaging fur coats and wool socks“answers” ​​a completely different type of moth – clothes moth.

If immediate action is not taken, a moth that has settled in the kitchen can cause a significant blow to your health. Particles of eggs, scales, excrement and other waste products of the pest end up in food and cause intoxication of the body. This may manifest itself in dizziness, nausea, vomiting, allergic reactions and a general decrease in immunity. Therefore, if you notice even one butterfly fluttering around the cabinets, greet it with murderous applause, and then be sure to study our recommendations on how to deal with food moths in the kitchen.

Getting rid of the pest step by step

It was not in vain that we recalled biology lessons and the development cycle of insects - as you can see, the destruction of adult individuals does not guarantee that in a couple of weeks new moths will not appear from the eggs already laid by the female. Therefore, the pest will have to be dealt with step by step, so as not to leave the slightest loophole for it, no matter what stage of development it is at.

We check possible places of infection

Important! Check closed packages for leaks - moth maggots can chew through paper, a cardboard bag and even a plastic bag.

The purpose of the search work is moth eggs and caterpillars. It is not difficult to identify maggots - if small whitish worms with black or brown heads are found, then put the container aside (if the product is in a bag, wrap it in another one so that the caterpillars do not crawl away during further inspection). The presence of a pest may be indicated by sediment in the form of dust, lumps in crumbly cereal or moth cobwebs, photos of which can be seen below. If you see such “signals” under the lid, on the walls or bottom of the container, the product undoubtedly needs to be disposed of.

Cereals moth infested

It is better to pour the grains onto the table - this will make it easier to notice the larvae

But pest eggs are much more difficult to detect. They are very small (the diameter of a grain of semolina) and can easily go unnoticed. Therefore, if the search does not produce results, it is worth prophylactically heating all the cereals in the oven at a temperature of 60-80 degrees for 30-40 minutes or putting them in freezer for a few days.

Important! If no signs of moths are found in the products, look into all dark and hard to reach places: behind the edges of peeling wallpaper, under baseboards, on the “roofs” of cabinets. The cocoons of the pest can also be seen here.

We destroy the larvae

If a contaminated product is found on the shelf, it is best to say goodbye to all the contents of the cabinet (definitely what was stored in open bags). Even if larvae were observed in only one container, there is no guarantee that they did not previously travel to adjacent containers. All products containing maggots should be thrown away or given to birds.

In order not to miss an accidental pest, we act like this:

  1. Thoroughly vacuum all shelves and cabinets with supplies, using a brush with a narrow nozzle. If you have a device with a fabric reservoir rather than a water filter, after cleaning, do not forget to immediately shake it out and place it in the freezer for a couple of days. But it is more convenient to purchase disposable paper bags for these purposes.
  2. Washing furniture in solution warm water with laundry soap (for 1-2 liters it is enough to rub and dissolve 1 bar). Leave for 10-15 minutes, then rinse the shelves with plain water.
  3. Now let's cook disinfectant solution: pour half a glass of 9% vinegar with the same amount cold water. Using this product, using a brush or cotton swab, you need to coat all the joints and crevices in the furniture to protect the room from larvae hiding there.
  4. Containers with products that have been tested for “internal” safety must be washed outside in the same order as the shelves: soap solution - water - vinegar.
  5. All that remains is to thoroughly dry the shelves, after which the food in clean containers can be placed in its place.

Storing supplies in jars is convenient, practical and beautiful!

You can turn ordinary spices or cereal stocks into unique decor interior

Important! Many thrifty housewives give advice on how to save spoiled food: sort through, bake or freeze. But this method is only good for prevention, and if moths and their larvae have left traces of their vital activity in the cereal, throw it away without regret or experimenting with your own health.

Fighting butterflies

The simplest and cheap way remove food moths from the kitchen using a banal slipper or a rolled-up newspaper. Yes, moths are so easy to destroy, but they spend most of their lives not fluttering around us, but looking for secluded places for their future offspring.

Therefore, it is worth being on the safe side and hanging special moth traps on the doors of supply cabinets. They are a thin square or circle, on one side of which an adhesive mass is applied for attaching to furniture, and on the other side there is a substance with pheromones that attracts male moths.

The traps do not emit strong odors, chemicals or toxic substances, so they can be safely used in the vicinity of food products.

On a note! Do not overdo it with the number of baits - if there is an excess of pheromones in the air, insects will not be able to determine the source and will not fly into the trap. 1-2 pieces in a kitchen up to 12 m2 will be quite enough.

From chemicals can also be used special aerosols from moths. Many of them have several nozzles: a standard one for spraying in the air and on cabinets, and a narrow one for joints. But such a remedy must be used with caution. First, you need to protect yourself with a mask or respirator from inhaling spray substances. Secondly, after processing the kitchen, you need to thoroughly wash all surfaces clean water and ventilate the room.

Measures to prevent the appearance of food moths

Although theoretically moths can appear in any kitchen, in practice most often they settle in the homes of thrifty housewives who like to buy cereals and flour in large quantities. Therefore, if you do not have a specially equipped storage place with low humidity and temperature, you should not give pests such a huge “jackpot”, because not only moth larvae, but also various bugs that could just as easily destroy food into disrepair.

To protect your home from food pests, follow these simple precautions:

  1. Buy products in transparent bags, through the packaging of which you can visually assess the quality of the product and suspicious inclusions.

Moth in a transparent bag

The pest can be hidden even under sealed packaging

  1. Store grains, nuts, seeds, seasonings and flour in clear glass or plastic containers with tight-fitting lids. At the bottom of each jar it would be nice to place a clove of peeled garlic and a large bay leaf.
  2. Regularly ventilate the room, do wet cleaning and inspect the supplies in the cabinets.
  3. If you still store NZ at home in the form of several kilograms of cereals/flour, it would be a good idea to periodically give the supplies ultraviolet baths. Exposure to the rays of the UF spectrum is detrimental to moths, so you can take out the cereals for a day glass balcony or use quartz lamp.
  4. In winter, you can give pests a “global cooling” by going for a walk and opening the kitchen window wide open. True, this method works only partially - the larvae and butterflies will die at temperatures below 12 degrees, but the laid eggs will wait for warmer weather and continue the development of moths in the kitchen.
  5. If you buy dry food for large animals in large bags, store them on the balcony. And immediately pour seeds and various grain supplements for rodents and birds from cardboard and plastic bags into a tightly screwed glass/plastic container.

Bay leaves can be used to protect any bulk products

On a note! Buying groceries in bulk is cheaper than buying groceries packaged in bags. But with individual packaging, the likelihood of bringing a pest home is much less.

The best folk recipes for protecting household supplies

When choosing how to get rid of moths in cereals, try to give preference not to chemicals, but to much safer folk remedies, because we're talking about O food products. Of course, “grandmother’s” recipes like the once popular naphthalene should not even be considered, but some tips today will help housewives protect their supplies.

  1. Effective natural remedies against food moths with a pronounced aroma: dried citrus peels, bunches of lavender, geranium, cloves, tansy, Caucasian chamomile. You can also use essential oils of these plants applied to pieces of cotton wool or fabric.
  2. Soap is good at repelling moths - laundry soap, lavender, strawberry. But since groceries strongly absorb odors, it is worth leaving this method for the prevention of “upper floors” - place finely chopped cubes on the roof of the cabinets.
  3. Garlic cloves are also effective against moths and can be used next to food, just remember to replace them with fresh ones as they dry out.
  4. Fresh leaves and green peel will be a good assistant in pest control. walnut.
  5. You can also place chestnut fruits, sprigs of mint or wormwood in the cabinets.
  6. A few drops of camphor oil can be added to water to wet cleaning as a preventive measure against moths.

Dry herbs in bags can be practical and beautiful decor for kitchen

Important! All of the above folk remedies only help to scare away adult individuals - if larvae have already appeared in the cereal, then the smells will not prevent them from spoiling the food.

Video: how to get rid of moths in the kitchen

Now you know the most common, time-tested and time-tested methods by many housewives on how to get rid of maggots and adult moths that have settled in the kitchen without permission. But if, despite all your efforts, moths appear again and again, it is worth involving professional services in the fight against insects. Experienced exterminators have in their arsenal effective means, which are guaranteed to bring victory in the fight against food moths.

Have you noticed a moth in the house? Don’t think for a minute, but get to work before butterflies and larvae ruin your clothes and food supplies. How to get rid of moths in an apartment? Read now!

Cereals, flour and products often harbor larvae that grow into moths. It is not difficult to get rid of them, the main thing is to take preventive measures in time.

  • Step 1: Thoroughly review the contents of your cabinets. If you notice food spoiled by moths, immediately throw it in the trash.
  • Step 2. Dry what was able to survive in a microwave or oven (temperature - 70-80 degrees, time - up to 20 minutes, open the oven door slightly), transfer to clean containers and close with a tight lid.
  • Step 3. Wash all cabinets, shelves and dishes with soapy water, and then with a vinegar solution. If there are cracks and crevices, it is better to use a brush. After soaping, leave the cabinets open for several hours.
  • Step 4. Ventilate the room.

Attention! For three days, make sure that the larvae do not appear again.

How to get rid of food moths in the kitchen? Take advantage of our selection of these effective remedies.

Moth herbarium

To combat food moths, wormwood, geranium, lavender, walnut leaves (fresh), sweet clover or tobacco are often used. Geraniums can simply be placed in a flowerpot, and the herbs can be laid out on the shelves. Keep in mind that geranium has a very strong aroma, which can cause various allergic reactions.

Citrus

Moths simply cannot stand the citrus scent. Place lemon, orange, grapefruit or tangerine peels throughout the kitchen. You can also apply a little on a cotton sponge essential oil and put it on the shelf.

Bay leaf

How to remove moths using bay leaves? Place them around the entire perimeter of the cabinet in which food, cereals or flour are stored.

Essential oils

To remove moths from the kitchen, soak a piece of cotton wool with any of the essential oils:

  • Geranium;
  • Tansy;
  • Fir;
  • Basil;
  • Carnation;
  • Ledum;
  • Rosemary;
  • Camphor (can be replaced with natural camphor).

Garlic

Young garlic is an excellent remedy for food moths. Peel one head, separate into teeth and throw into jars of cereal. Don't worry about the scent - it will disappear very quickly.

Perfume and cologne

Moths are repelled by any strong odors, so after cleaning, you can spray perfume and cologne in the cabinets.

Video tips:

How to remove moths from wardrobes?

To remove moth larvae from outerwear closets, take note of this simple algorithm:

  1. Go through all the clothes and find the nest - it looks like a lump of cobwebs in which the larvae live.
  2. Moth hates Fresh air– feel free to send things outside or on the balcony so that they are well ventilated.
  3. Affected clothing can be placed in a bag and placed in the freezer for about 20 minutes. Repeat the procedure at least 4 times. In the cold, moth larvae die very quickly.
  4. Do it in all closets general cleaning. Vacuum all corners, wipe down shelves soap solution and diluted table vinegar.
  5. Allow the wardrobe to dry and air for about 3 hours.
  6. Bring in clothes from the street, shaking them first so that the moths fall out of the fur coat, jacket or coat.

Another effective folk recipe:

Preventing moths

Now you know exactly how to remove moths from an apartment, but wouldn’t it be better to prevent this problem? It's very easy to do this:

  • Freshly purchased cereals need to be calcined in the oven, and then poured into a special container made of glass, metal or plastic. It is better to forget about ziplock packaging or regular bags forever;
  • Remember, in a transparent container it is much easier to monitor whether there are moths in the cereals or not;
  • Keep the kitchen in order - regularly clean, ventilate, throw away leftover food and do not leave trash;
  • Review your inventory, especially if you keep it for a very long time;
  • Disassemble all the rubble, stale things and dowry in the form of feather beds, rolled carpets, pillows, scarves and other things. If this is not done, the moth will return to the kitchen;
  • Do not store dirty or worn clothes;
  • Ventilate the apartment almost daily;
  • Treat wool and fur products with anti-moth sprays;
  • Pack things in newspaper wrappers.

Store-bought moth repellents

To get rid of moths at home, purchase special traps (Aeroxon or Raptor) in the store. As a rule, they are placed in all kitchen cabinets or on wardrobe shelves. Now you have to wait about 60 days. This is exactly how long it takes for a small larva to turn into a large moth and, attracted by the smell, fly straight into the trap.



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