The Moths Must Go!

August 11, 2011 6:22 PM

Please help me effectively bug-bomb or fog my house.

While my wife and kids are out of town for the weekend, I want to fog the house to end a very long battle with pantry moths.

I've kept them at bay for years with natural stuff like traps and lavender oil, but now that I have the opportunity, I'm ready to bomb them out.

I understand what's on the box; remove food and pets, put out pilot lights. Is there anything else I should know? Any words of wisdom or advice from folks who've done this?

Do you have any advice that's not on the box?

Many thanks and wish me luck!

If it matters, I bought Raid concentrated deep reach fogger, 3 ea.

posted by snsranch to Home & Garden (8 answers total)

We did this once for a big ant infestation (it didn't work for the ants, but might for the moths). The only thing I can suggest is to put the foggers down on a couple of squares of newspaper to minimize any mess right around the can. I felt like I was in an action movie, setting those things off and running out of the house.
posted by jquinby at 6:27 PM on August 11, 2011

Watch out for pilot lights on stoves, water heaters, and furnaces.

I bombed my house for fleas before moving in. The fleas laughed at me when I walked back in the next afternoon. I had to get a professional to get those fuckers.
posted by kellyblah at 6:35 PM on August 11, 2011

Info on the active ingredient:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cypermethrin
posted by Exchequer at 6:48 PM on August 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Although what's available probably varies by region, the hardware stores here in NYC carry a "top shelf" brand that they usually only sell to building supers. Sadly, I'm forgetting the brand name (white, not black, can), but if you have a local non-chain hardware store or building supply, it might be worth going in and asking for the absolute strongest they have. It worked noticeably better than the mass-market foggers I tried. I'll message you if I remember the name.

I believe the label will tell you to set the can on a stool (ditto on jquinby's newspaper note) to spread the mist as widely as possible. Also open your cabinets, etc., even if that means hiding or washing dishes.

Good luck! For roaches it really did work.
posted by skbw at 8:22 PM on August 11, 2011

Know what gets rid of moths? Ziploc freezer bags.

We had an infestation of the tiny ones that love to eat merino wool sweaters. The more expensive the sweater, the more holes they'd chew.

What solved it was taking everything edible in the kitchen and putting it inside a ziploc. Within two weeks I noticed little dead bugs in several of the bags. Ones containing rice, various different bags of nuts, flour and cornstarch. The little bastards had gnawed their way through the original cardboard, wax paper or thin plastic bags containing the foods. Sealing them up in the heavier weight freezer bag variety of ziplocs suffocated the little bastards.

Same thing for each sweater. The holier ones likewise ended up with dead bugs in the bag.

Within a month we had no moth troubles at all. And have had none since, continuing to keep any opened shelf-stable foods inside a ziploc.

Costco sells 'em in bulk. Gallon and quart size are the ones you want.
posted by wkearney99 at 8:40 PM on August 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Just chiming in to agree with wkearney99 -- I've never bug-bombed for those damn things, so I hope it works out for you, but if you see them coming back put everything in plastic and/or gallon bags. On first sight of a moth, we actually put everything in a gallon plastic bag and then inside a hard plastic container, and that nipped it in the bud. So if you see any post-bomb, try it. Works, but is a slight pain in the rear.
posted by lillygog at 4:45 AM on August 12, 2011

Response by poster: Thanks everybody. This is good stuff to know, especially that it decomposes quickly. I feel safer about it now!

Thanks again!
posted by snsranch at 8:46 AM on August 12, 2011

This is the stuff I mentioned above: Pro-Control Plus. Much better than mass-market. Worth a try if what you already bought does not work well enough.
posted by skbw at 10:20 PM on August 13, 2011