On 15/11/2014 08:37, Chris Hogg wrote:
On Fri, 14 Nov 2014 21:56:53 -0000, "Christina Websell"
wrote:

Those things that look like tennis rackets and are powered by batteries.
Three years ago I saw some small moths in my house. Being moth friendly, I
thought they were some sort of micro that had come in from the garden. Until
I noticed my expensive rug had been chomped.
Now these moths only fly at night, and for only around 15 seconds so you
have to leap up the moment you see one and zap them.
Also works well on those small flies that you get if you save teabags and
stuff and can't be bothered to take to the compost heap for 2 weeks.
Satisfying fizz from the bug bat.
No good for bluebottles and houseflies, they are too fast.


Last year we had an absolute infestation of clothes moths. Must have
been hundreds of them. Was killing up to a dozen a day in the summer,
including flying moths and pupae. Apparently it was a bad year
everywhere. They flit about in the evening in a random path, and when
they settle, their wings fold right back along their bodies so they
look like tiny twigs. Their larvae wrap themselves in house-dust and
debris, and then crawl up the walls and attach themselves to the
ceiling in the angle to pupate. Images at http://tinyurl.com/nubus5r

Got one of those bug bats, as you call them (1000 volts!), and
although they were quite effective if you managed to hit a moth in
flight, this was surprisingly difficult to do (but quite successful
against houseflies and bluebottles). Tried pheromone-baited traps:
caught nothing! Eventually we resorted to an insecticide spray -
Zero-In clothes moth killer http://tinyurl.com/njkwfdx. Went all
around the edges of our wool carpets (shan't have wool again!), and
got some sheets of impregnated paper for drawers, cupboards, in and
behind wardrobes etc.

Total success! Not a moth to be seen this year.



Don't forget the Varied Carpet Beetle and its larva. They can do quite
a bit of damage. We see both Clothes Moths and VCB here, so they're
fairly common.

http://bugguide.net/node/view/590389

--
Spider.
On high ground in SE London
gardening on heavy clay