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I am not sure about moths eating on a shirt. I think moths, or other fiber eating insects like fine wools and cashmeres. I learnt the hard way after having my brand new MaxMara coat eaten in my closet. I searched high and low and I found out that moths or some other tiny insect that is found in old books (don't know the english name for it) can feast on your best cashmeres and woolens if they are left unwashed in the closet. So that is one of the things that should be avoided, wear a coat or sweater once or twice this winter and then just put away for next winter. You should ALWAYS dry clean the winter clothes when put away come spring. Regarding Julia's dilema, I think if her shirts were cotton, the only way they got wholes was at the laundrymatt (especially is she used a common washer) someone before she put her clothes in used some extremely strong and acidic detergent, or sometimes specks of bleach with corrode the fabric instantly. I have seen it, it has happened to me.

I've found tiny little holes in a couple of my t-shirts, but I've never seen moths either.

Has anyone ever found little orange worms in their clothing before? I wonder if these are moth larvae, because in my last apartment there were at least 3 occasions where I found these crawling either in my laundry bag or around my clothes.

I thought moths ate any natural fibre, including cotton? I am sure I have a moth hole in my cotton t-shirt.

And yes - it is the little moth larvae that do the eating. This is courtesy of Martha Stewart, who's housekeeping book I read last night. Another thing I learned from said book was that you can line your closet with cedar planks that you buy from a hardware store.

They only fly in the spring and the fall. I advise getting a good exterminator to come in and check for them. If you think you have them you probably do. If you do, it's an expensive process getting rid of them. I've done it once and I will have to do it again.You have to have everything you own that is wool dry-cleaned and out of your apartment when they come in to exterminate. Everything out of the closets. I probably don't remember all the expense and inconvenience.

And you can't keep them out for sure. Nothing actually works. You just have to vacuum every nook and cranny and be ever vigilant. What you think is a dust ball, may well be a nest. Plus, if there's nothing for them to eat, they just hibernate - for years - until there is something to eat.

It sounds unusual that you have a whole in something brand new. That said...It is the larva that make the holes. By the time they are flying the damage is done. Once infested with moths they are hard to get out. The stuff that works the best is the most toxic. In my experience they like wool the best followed by silk and then cotton. Definitely dry clean or launder stuff before putting it away for the season...I read somewhere that they are attracted body oils etc. The cedar blocks have not worked spectacularly in my experience ...at least once you have an infestation. My new plan for care is to launder and dry clean winter stuff and put in the space saver bags and then clean out closet and spray with repellant ( I purchased at container store) and then let air out for a couple of days while I am gone

To add...

Also from Martha - suggested use of pheremone traps, where the male moth gets trapped on this sticky strip. This is a good way to figure out if you have a moth problem (ie, if you can see a moth stuck there, then you have a month problem)

I googled it and got this.

http://www.pestproducts.com/pheromones.htm

i had a similar mystery a while ago, but it was only happening to my husband's shirts. we both share a large dresser and a closet, so i thought it was strange that moths would only be attracted to his t-shirts, and not mine. i did solve the mystery, and it did not involve bugs at all - my husband likes to wear (somewhat ornate) 70s belt buckles, and also plays guitar for a living. The shirts were getting little holes just at the point where the fabric gets scraped against the buckle by the guitar body! I swear, the resulting holes look just like moth-holes!

The little orange worms (about 1/4" long, right?) are carpet beetle larvae. They will eat holes in your clothes and then will turn into tiny black beetles and they are a pain to get rid of. You can keep them down by keeping things clean and aired and vacuum often; I think they prefer dark places where they can cosy up their little beetle selves and make beetle babies. You can also tell if you have them if there are larvae "husks", which they leave behind when they grow up.

Must leave house now!

I've tried various methods to get rid of moths and the pheromone traps seem to work far better than moth balls. They use a lure that smells of the female moth to trap the males onto a sticky card. This way the moths don't mate so there are no little moth lavae eating your clothes.

Freezing clothes that may already have eggs/lavae in them is also supposed to help kill them off. You can also use dry bay leaves packed in with your clothes instead of moth balls - they smell much better and are supposed to keep the moths away.

Isn't this why people often have cedar chests for storage? My minimal experience is that the moths only go after the wool clothing. I had a nice wool cap that suddenly developed tiny holes one year. I tired cedar blocks which seemed to help, but don't really have any other wool clothing.

As for the T-shirts I've always found that type of material is very easy snag and develop a tiny hole which grows with subsequent washing and wear and tear.

I have gotten small holes in clothing before that I believe came from silverfish, not moths. (that's at least what we call them here in the south) They're small, I think the largest I've seen is about 1/8 in., and siverish-gray. They're crawling bugs, not flying bugs, and shaped kinda like a slender almond. My parents' house used to get them from time to time. A lot of times they are in old books/papers, etc. Unfortunately, I don't really know how to get rid of them, but I just thought that may be why you haven't seen moths. There may be some kind of spray to get rid of them.

Whenever I would unpack my sweaters for winter, I would always find holes in my sweaters. My aunt who is extremely domestic gave me the following tips to get rid of those moth holes. This year when I unpacked my sweaters, I didn't find any holes so so far, they have worked for me.

Before you put sweaters away for the summer, wash every single one because the moths are drawn to your smell (sweat, perfume, cologne, etc)

Pack them in air tight bags or zipper bags with cedar blocks and/or lavender scented saches.

Good luck!

I think for cedar to work, it needs to be lightly sanded once or twice a year.

I have been having the same exact problem. Ever since I moved, every tshirt I own is getting tiny holes ripped in the middle/lower portion in almost the same spot. I have been blaming it on my washing machine...and can't imagine it's bugs causing the problem. Yuck!!

Oddly enough....I have moths in my apartment (very small brown ones) but no holes in any of my clothes!!

I ripped all the coats out of my closet after seeing the first few and nothing. Checked all my cashmere sweaters and they are fine.

And I don't have any food stored outside of the fridge, so they didn't come from the kitchen cabinets.

Just another NYC apartment mystery....

First bedbugs, then moths, eeek -- what is this site coming to?

But actually, I have a weird story along the same lines. A few days ago, my boyfriend pulled a shirt out of his closet, put it on, and walked into the kitchen. Felt something tickling his neck and discovered it was a huge (1 inch plus) cockroach that apparently had been inside his shirt when he put it on!

We'd seen roaches in the kitchen, but that was months ago and they disappeared after we put down traps. And my boyfriend is not one for keeping dirty clothes hanging in the closet, believe me (those are all piled on the floor next to his side of the bed!).

Was this just a fluke? Anyone hear of something like this happening before? I am completely grossed out by this whole thing and can hardly bring myself to root around in the closet to put roach traps down. Ugh.

On carpet beetles - while they don't bite people like bed bugs they also can get into anything and everything. I had an infestation once and I found them under baseboards, inside cardboard boxes in the tops of my closets, chomping away at glue in books & old photo albums in my bookshelves, under my stove. Anywhere that regular cleaning did not get to. In the end I had to empty out everything in my apartment & repack in plastic.

They can survive on anything organic - wool, glue, paper, cotton, silk, food in your cabinets - anything.

I only found the infestation because I found a few dead ones & panicked thinking I had bed bugs - I then did a thorough inspection of my place with a flashlight & found them. I still have nightmares about them.

If you have ever seen any innocent looking black beetles the size of a lady bug - those are the adults who lay eggs & you might want to do a little bit of looking around in your place.

http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2103.html

http://www.entomology.cornell.edu/Extension/DiagnosticLab/IDLFS/BeetlesInfestingWoolens/BeetlesInfestingWoolens.html

I collect textiles and had a serious moth infestation a few months ago, which cost me thousands of dollars to deal with (in addition to what I needed to throw out) Here's what you need to know

- you may not see anything flying around - I discovered the problem when I found holes in a stored rug. I ultimately found a tribal cape that was infested.

- moths and beetles eat natural fibers - and not just wool, although whatever was in my closet showed a real preference for goat hair. Any type of fur, silk, etc. are all at risk. Silverfish eath paper, etc.

- the first step in dealing with an infestation is to clean out the closet, have EVERYTHING dry cleaned or washed in hot water and have all holes/cracks in any sort of closet sealed. Vaccum and wash the closet thoroughly, then get an exterminator who specializes in this, like Orkin. They need to come every 3 months and are only a partial solution. You can monitor how things are going by buying traps and phermone lures - unfortunately, you need different lures for each type of moth (there are two), etc., and you need to put in new lures every couple of months. Phermones will kill males but the traps are more important for monitoring.

- if you have something that you can't clean, see if you can put it into the freezer, cranked up to high, for two weeks, then thaw it carefully.

- cedar is useless - what seems to have worked was the fact that cedar closets and chests are tightly sealed. But as for hangers, chips, blocks, spray, nope - read the literature.

- clean things before you store them for the summer. You'd be amazed at how much is known about moths dietary preferences, e.g., ring around the collar, different stains. Yuck!

- If you store rugs, you can have them mothproofed, which will last for 3 years and costs about $25 per rug. A good rug dealer can do it - I had valuable antiques done.

Since this is a chronic concern in museums, there's a lot of good information on-line, including

http://www.textilemuseum.org/care/brochures/pestbusters.htm

http://www.nature.nps.gov/biology/ipm/manual/museum.cfm

http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7436.html

http://missourifamilies.org/features/materialarticles/feature5.htm

And whatever you do, do NOT just ignore the holes and hope whatever you've got will go away.

Several years ago I was moving a sofa and noticed that when I bumped it, a few tiny moths came fluttering out from underneath. I turned it over and discovered an enormous nest of thousands. They have recently come back and I'm getting ready to move - everything gets drycleaned before coming into the new house....

I'm just in the midst of dealing with this myself. I found holes, but no signs of moths. It's the larvae that actually do the eating. You will need to take everything out of your closet and/or dresser and either wash or dry clean it. Washing in cool water will not do the trick. The eggs are stuck on with a glue-like compound and dry cleaning is the best way to ensure your stuff is really cleaned. Freezing for several days can also work, but if you don't remove the body oils or other attractive smells, they'll just find the item again.

I've washed down all the closet and dressers with hot soapy water and only put back cleaned clothes. I'm also making lavender sachets for every drawer and shelf. The lavender smell is unappealing to moths and makes it difficult for them to find your woollens. Wool is the main thing they'll attack, but they will munch other natural fibres with protein (e.g. silk) as well.

The moths like dark, humid, undisturbed areas best. Either store things in tightly sealed containers, or shake them out and hang them in the light regularly (this mainly applies to stuff like sweaters that you might not touch for months).

Good luck! I commiserate completely as having to wash my entire wardrobe of clothing is teh suck.

ugh that just happened to me. VERY expencive cashmere! grr

anyway, i hung cedar blocks in my closets & put these herb things in the drawers. you can get them at the container store. they smell amazing!

then, i washed all of my winter stuff & put them in those large glad storage bags.

To get rid of the moth larva and eggs in your clothing...
In the museum world we put the infested item in a plastic bag and tie it shut. Then you put it in the freezer for 48 hrs-take it out of the freezer (but still in the bag for 24 hours), and then put it back in the freezer for another 48hrs. It's the 48-24-48 non-chemical way to kill many bugs and their larva and eggs. The first freeze kills all initial larva and then stimulates the rest of the eggs to hatch when thawed. So the 24hrs in between is to allow the rest of the larva to hatch (this could cause more damage to your clothing i suppose) and then the second 48hrs should kill the rest of the newly hatched larva. This also could be other bugs like above comments have mention, ie. carpet beetles or silverfish. The freezing method should work for those insects as well.

But as mentioned above you have to get rid of them from your closet/dresser as well or they will come back to haunt you. I suppose you could stick your whole dresser maybe in a walk in freezer???

In Greece you can find moth repellents ready made into packets that you can either leave in your drawers or hang in your closet. There is also special scented paper that you can use. There is lavender and cedar perfumed repellents and it works for me - no moths whatsoever since I moved into my apartment in 2001l Raid makes them too so I bet you can find these in the US too.

In addition to cedar and bay leaves - peppermint, sandalwood (yum!), cloves, horse chestnut and orange peel are supposed to be good too. And get rid of any old carpet in your wardrobe cos apparently its ideal moth shelter. Good luck!

Carpet beetles are the worst - they EAT ANYTHING. Wood, paper, human hair, feathers, wool, pet fur, ANYTHING. The little black beetles (tiny) fly in around this time of year and lay their eggs which are the carpet beetle larvae (little worms) and THOSE are the one that make the wholes in everything. You can find them sometime in pasta or rice when you dump it in boiling water you will see them squirming (as well as their shed skins floating) and then you know you really have a problem.
Buy pheromone traps, move furniture and vacuum all dust bunnies, also make sure to seal all dry food items in your cabinet.
I had a terrible infestation and they ruined tons of things from family heirloom furniture to cashmere sweaters to books to pocketbooks.

simpson - i've found a roach in a shoe, and in the sleeve of a sweater (good thing it wasn't mine and i didn't find it when i put it on). also, i put on a pair of jeans once that was folded on the floor (i had folded all my clothes and put them on a rug the night before - too tired to put them all up that moment) and i felt something tickling my leg and felt it through my pants and it fell out and was a big huge black spider. i never stripped so fast in my life. i don't know why they end up in there.

In "Home Comforts" Cheryl Mendelsson points out that silverfish are attracted to starch, so if you're storing items or have a problem with holes, you might want to skip the starch or use sizing instead.

I have had a very similar problem for the past few years--tiny holes in my T-shirts, all in the same place (on the front, middle, bottom of the shirts). I am a student, and I finally figured out that it was the way I was holding my textbooks while sitting on a couch or comfy chair to read--the corner of the book was rubbing up against that part of the shirt. Since you say that all your holes are in the "middle" of your shirts, I wonder if you might have a similar problem. I find it hard to believe that moths would have a preference for a certain part of the shirt (except perhaps the underarm area, if they are indeed attracted to perfumes and/or sweat). Good luck figuring out what it is.

They are from silverfish - which live around dust (even if your house isn't terribly dusty).

I had carpet beetles last year - they were all over my closet and in my dresser drawers (gross1) An exterminator came in last year and took care of them and now they seem to be back. I'm heading to the container store for cedar and plastic boxes (i had put all of my stuff in space saver bags but the exterminator said the bugs could eat through those). Has anyone gotten rid of them permanently and do you have any tips??? I'm desperate. Oddly, I've also seen their skins in my bookcase. Do they really like books?