Well, just bought a new house and we've opened ourselves up to more moths by doing so.

We live in a rural area and there are tons out here. The last house we lived in was even further out in the country, but didn't have as many windows near the doors.

Where we live now we have an eight foot section of windows  right next to our front door. We also have a big bay window/door area by our backdoor and kitchen area.

It's been cool here so far, and we've still had a ton of moths. I can only imagin what it will be like come summer.

So what do you guys do to remedy this problem. I don't want to have to turn out the lights or shut the curtains and ruin the view.

But I'm scared of those moths eating my wifes clothes (worth about as much as my gun collection).

So....Bug Zapper?

Or should I start training my pit bull to attack moths?

Load up all your 30 rd mags and call RedGoat for pointers. [:)]

No need, just refine your technique, I heard the 40gr hollow point .223 fragment just fine in the average moth...as long as they are inside 100 meters.....


[-=(_)=-]

Sounds like you went for that house like a moth to a flame...

Large can of WD-40 with red extension and a Bic?

[no.......bad idea]

How about investing in a gaggle of Geckos?

Kiss those treasured flannel longjohns goodbye!

[:D]

Flame Thrower [pyro]

Ideas, open for criticism:

Yes on the bug zapper

Very bright light on a pole away from house.

Keep the lights down when not in the room

Do those yellow exterior bulbs work?

Bag the clothes

Mothballs / crystals

Supertight cedar(lined?) wardrobe closet(s)

Build out between the window and doors

Doors with windows - replace with windowless

Recaulk around windows, make sure you have supertight seals & weatherstripping

Build bat boxes & mount around exterior

May I suggest introducing your wife to people who dress more informally?  As that wardrobe grows, maybe she will unload some of that precious stuff.  With time, maybe she will become more "down home".

After all, you ARE in the country. When in Rome....

So are you saying that everyone who lives in the country dresses like a slob?

I mean this isn't like Green Acres or anything.

I guess everyone who lives in the sticks should wear overalls?


Anyway, I think the cedar closet is the way to go. Thanks for the suggestion, an idea I overlooked.

So the Bug zapper works for you? I've always been skeptical of those things but would buy a few if they actuall did a decent job.

Already have a dusk to dawn light away from the house.

Not sure what you mean by the yellow lights.

Really I'm not just worried just about the moths. As anybody who lives in the country knows (especailly those who live in humid hot areas) lots of bugs are attracted to the light.

Again, I've dealt with it before. But I can see that with this house I've got my work cut out for me.

   
BTW, I'm leaning to the flame thrower idea.

Meshugga (sp?) and some others have good ideas.
Large, electrostatic bug killers work very well.  The ones I've seen work well are about 2 feet tall, 10 or 12 inches in diameter, and have a very bright ultra-violet light that attracts the bugs but doesn't light up your back yard like a parking lot. I used to drive up to Wolf Lake in northern lower Michigan almost every weekend in the summer and I had a chance to watch them work in great detail for many years.  Virtually everyone on the lake had at least one.  I think the best ones are probably expensive $100-$200, but work extremely well.  They use about 15,000 or 20,000 volts to electrocute any bug that touches a fine mesh screen covering the light. They make a loud pop when they kill, or else a loud electrocution sound.  Sometimes they kill so many bugs they sound like popcorn popping, only much, much louder.  In the morning there are usually hundreds or thousands of crispy dead bugs inside in a pile usually 1 or 2 inches deep.  

Another idea is to consult with a good entomologist (bug scientist), who wll probably have some excellent ideas on how to interfere with reproduction, how to find and destroy eggs, etc.    Good luck.

These are [b][u]your[/u][/b] words, not mine.[:O]
In the context of your remark about how expensive your wife's clothes were, what I said was, "dress more informally".

Maybe if I'd said "less expensively" (i.e. so that a moth or two is not TEOTWAWK), you wouldn't have been so offended.  Maybe you would be.  Please don't read too much into my words.

I don't know why you chose to project some derogatory inference into a straightforward suggestion.  Are you just REALLY sensitive to the idea that someone might look down on you because you live in the country? Or on other people?



Now if we take your [b]first[/b] remark about dressing like [b]slobs[/b], and join it with [b]this[/b] one, about [b]overalls[/b], we'd almost get the impression that [b]you[/b] look down on people who wear overalls!!!


Let me explain.  My Dad spent his youth and teen years living in the woods, surrounded by farms.  We still go there.

They wore various clothes, as the occasion called for.  Still do.  There were and are very few people reasonable folks would call slobs.  

However, for riding, it was Wranglers, not Armani.  Overalls are not not looked down on except maybe when they're out of place.  The way my dad tells it, women didn't maintain extensive collections of designer dresses, they had some nice ones and that was it. Guys didn't wear suits unless they worked in the city and their profession called for it, or for those special occasions.  The rest of the time it was denims, slacks or what have you. It hasn't changed that much.

People...just...are...more...informal...

(Except for the occasional people who want to transplant their city life intact, 40 miles past the city limits)

I don't really understand why you felt you had to correct me, unless you presumed something that just wasn't there.  Sheesh!


You're welcome.

People use to buy these yellow, almost orange bulbs to put in their exterior fixtures (no, I'm not talking about outhouses -- LIGHT fixtures) that were advertised as being less attractive to our six-legged friends.  I never thought they worked much.

If you are using screens, the finer, the better.
Now for A/C, I'm thinking that maintaining a positive pressure differential (inside vs. outside) could help.  That and a well-screened intake.  I'm not an engineer, but there would be SOME fresh air coming in, right?

Good luck.

http://www.themothmanlives.com/

Runaway.....Runaway.......

In case you want to save the ammo.  Try building a bat house (if there are bats in your neck of the woods).


[url]http://www.batcon.org/bhra/bhcriter.html[/url]


Bats are fun and they can eat a lot of bugs... stand out by the bug zapper with a tennis racket and see how good your swing is.  Just so ya know, I've never actually been successful at bat tennis, but it is fun.

Only slobs dress like slobs(excluding halloween of course) but bug zappers acually bring them in kind of like mothes to a flame! Unless they are gypsie mothes and then of course they will leave!  Either way you will just have to cowboy-up!     bob cole

So who knows how to get rid of the undulating moth FCKS [b]IN[/b] your house?  I mean when they're in cocoon form.  Don't know where or how the hell they got here.  I took a nickel and squashed the little bastard out of his cocoon.  Tried to play hide and seek.  I found him and he lost.  Instant milky mush!

The worst ones are the meal moths. The larvae get into just about everything that contains grain and they LOVE chocolate. The only way to get rid of them is to dump all of the food not sealed in heavy plastic from the pantry. You haven't lived until you have gone through half a bag of snack sized snickers bars only to discover that the other half is INFESTED with worms!

mmmm, protine..

Darn right!  Sounds like a job for a Beta-C.  I bet we could even find a way to make a nice sausage out of them....

Actually, when I saw the thread my first thought was "Uh-Oh!  MarineGrunt is drunk, Seamusmcoi is on LSD!"

Gonna be a wild night on the board tonight!

TheRedGoat

Just Protein