Natural moth repellents

Using Lavender and Cedar as natural moth repellents for clothes moths

I wrote a couple of posts back in 2012 about battling clothes moths and they’re still some of my most popular articles. They’re persistent little critters!

What is a clothes moth?

The scientific name of the most common UK clothes moth is Tineola bisselliella. It is a boring looking little brown moth about 1cm long. It likes to lay its eggs in quiet spaces like linen drawers and cupboards, which hatch into little hard-to-spot larvae that eat your fabrics. These then turn into pupae before becoming moths to fly off looking for new habitats! They particularly like natural fibres like wool and make irritating holes. The second most common clothes moth in the UK is Tinea pellionella which is called the case-bearing clothes moth because it wears a case for protection. This case resembles a grain of rice in shape, size and colour. Read more at the Natural History Museum website.

How to eradicate moths naturally

The disappointing answer might be that you can’t fully eradicate them even if you’re happy to use chemicals, as they’re great at hiding and then finding new places to breed. But there are things you can do. For example enclosed spaces like drawers and wardrobes can be treated in the following way:

Take all of your clothes out.
Thoroughly hoover and clean the inside of the space, checking especially along joints and in corners for any hiding pupae.
Thoroughly check over your items of clothing one at a time, front and back. You’re looking for little marks a millimetre or two across that might be larvae or pupae, or you may find holes where they’ve been.
If you find any clothes with moths and don’t want to bin them, pick off any visible larvae, then you could try sealing them into a plastic bag and putting it in your freezer for a few days. The ice box won’t do as it’s not cold enough.
If you’re able to use a hot wash on your garments, 50 degC should be enough to kill the moths as an alternative to the freezer
Don’t put anything back until your’e confident you’ve dealt with it.
Add a natural moth repellent such as a lavender bag.

Using dried Lavender to repel moths

There are a variety of creatures that don’t like lavender. I’ve heard that scorpions in the south of France can be deterred by a scattering of lavender grains around windows and other points of entry. Customers report that our dried lavender can repel spiders, although I’ve not tested that myself! We sell it loose and in ready-made lavender bags too. It seems to me that it must be an active ingredient in lavender essential oil that insects don’t like. So I reckon they’ll really hate the lavender potpourri we make in the shop! It’s 100% natural and just made from dried lavender grains mixed with lavender oil. If you put it in a bag, you can squeeze it every couple of weeks to release more of the natural oils.

Cedarwood to deter clothes moths

Cedar is a traditional moth repellent, and you can get little wooden blocks to add to your coat hangers. But if you buy Cedarwood essential oil, you can add it to whatever you like! The only problem with essential oils is they may mark fabrics, so do be careful to make sure any items you put in your wardrobe are fully dry and preferably not contacting your precious garments. Cedar roses (fruit of the Cedar tree, much like a pine cone) are a great substrate for the oil as they’re so decorative but have hardly any natural scent. You may need to refresh them with a drop of oil every few weeks, making sure any excess is removed before putting back in the drawer.

By my reckoning, if you can smell it, so can the moths!

Some products the moths will hate:

Read our page at daisyshop.co.uk about clothes moth repellent products. Image at top of page: a ready-made large scented Cedar Rose and Lavender potpourri bag. Also available: small and large lavender bags, essential oils, small cedar rose bags, loose cedar roses with or without oil added.