"David W.E. Roberts" wrote in message ...
Cross posted to uk.rec.gardening

"Roy Millar" wrote in message
...
Don't know what I could have done to encourage them, but I'm suffering
a plague of small (clothes?) moths.

Anyone know of reasonably safe ways of eliminating them?



--
Roy Millar, Use m o u l i n e t @

There are loads of moths around at present but I doubt they are clothes
moths.
I don't think they do very well on modern artificial fabrics.

I keep finding moths hiding in unlikely places during the day.
AFAIK they are mainly nocturnal and so have to find a safe retreat during
the heat of the day.
I am trying to explain gently that my stock of timber in the garage which I
am using in my ever ongoing en-suite project is not a safe place to hide,
but every time I pull out another piece of timber I find a moth hiding in
the gaps below.

If you can bear it, please don't eliminate them.
Obviously check that they are not clothes moths first :-)
AFAIK they are completely harmless and beneficial to the garden, much like
butterflies.
They seem to take over from the butterflies in the evening, flitting between
the flowers.

I like moths: many of them are much more elegant than butterflies. The
children and I used to set a moth trap overnight and admire and
release our haul in the morning. Collins Gem Guide to Butterflies and
Moths is very good for identifying.

Clothes moths are very small, and I doubt if you'd get clouds of them
in the garden. Cabbage moths are the night equivalent of cabbage white
butterflies; codlin moths are the ones which put caterpillars in
apples; and I find mullein moths troublesome on verbascums here in
West Wales. All these are shades of brown -- at rest, the mulleins
look just like old bits of bark. Also a pest are winter moths, which
you won't have just now, as, surprisingly, they appear in the winter:
grease bands round your apple trees will stop the wingless females
climbing up and creating havoc.

Mike.