Christina- Thanks for the heads up regarding your experience with the cubicle walls- "real life/specific" examples like this where institutions are seeing moths in offices are so valuable to be mindful of when investigating potential causes. Regarding the "food" part of the email. I have always been under the impression that food attracts other insects/mice that the WCM larvae then feed on. I am curious to know, are there types of food that people eat that WCM would also eat?
Thanks again to everyone chiming in on this thread- great information 👍 -Todd On Thu, Oct 27, 2022 at 10:30 AM 'Rebecca Newberry (she/her)' via MuseumPests <pestlist@googlegroups.com> wrote: > We've also had success with spraying cube walls and base boards with > pyrethroids, specifically Demand CS. We have a contract with a pest control > company. We reapply pesticide after 90 days until we stop catching moths. > That, combined with pheromone trap monitoring and an information campaign > for staff who work in the area has knocked down the infestation to almost > nothing. I've attached a flyer I posted in the office area where we found > moths. > I also went through every desk that I could, looking for infested > items, then isolating and treating anything suspicious before returning it > to the owner. Then I asked them to remove infestable things for the time > being. Another thing that helped was an employee retiring who had an active > clothes moth infestation at home (!!). > Good luck! It may take a while but you can do it! > Rebecca > ------------------------------ > <https://www.smm.org/> > *Rebecca Newberry* > *Pronouns: she/her/hers* > *Director of Collections Stewardship* > e: rnewbe...@smm.org > o: (651) 265-9841 > > > On Thu, Oct 27, 2022 at 9:25 AM Christina Bisulca <c.bisu...@gmail.com> > wrote: > >> Hello - >> We've dealt with a similar issue at my institution with webbing clothes >> moths in office areas - I'm just mentioning in case it helps anyone else. >> >> We found the source of the infestation was actually under the cubicle >> walls - with people eating at their desks, food that fell onto the floor >> was pushed under these walls during vacuuming as there is a few mm gap. We >> had a pest company come and spray the infected areas (using deltamethrin if >> I remember) until we were able to clean the problem areas. It seemed to >> work, but we were probably also just lucky it hadn't already spread >> anywhere else. >> >> Christina >> >> On Thu, Oct 27, 2022 at 8:21 AM 'Haff, Tonya (NCMI, Crace)' via >> MuseumPests <pestlist@googlegroups.com> wrote: >> >>> Hello all, >>> >>> We just discovered a clothes moth outbreak in a rarely used office in >>> our building. There are no specimens in this office, and I am not quite >>> sure what they are eating - casings are around the edge of the carpet, >>> which I do not think is wool. Perhaps they are feeding on dead insects that >>> are behind the desks, etc? >>> >>> I'm looking for thoughts on how to best treat the outbreak. We >>> discovered the problem at the end of the day, so tomorrow morning we will >>> pull all furniture away from the walls and vacuum and wipe down all >>> surfaces that we can. I am tempted to 'bomb' the room with a pyrethrin >>> based flea bomb thing, but I am not sure how effective that would be, if at >>> all? Thoughts on that would be appreciated. I am also wondering about >>> sprinkling diatomaceaous earth around the edges of the carpet where the >>> outbreak seems to be, after vacuuming. Finally I was planning on putting up >>> pheremone traps to monitor the situation, and to keep vacuuming (daily? >>> Weekly? suggestions?). If there is something I am missing or suggestions >>> for what else to do (or not do), I would very much appreciate it! >>> >>> Thanks, >>> >>> Tonya >>> >>> >>> >>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>> Groups "MuseumPests" group. >>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >>> an email to pestlist+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >>> To view this discussion on the web visit >>> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pestlist/ME2PR01MB550808E82775AED47D833933EE339%40ME2PR01MB5508.ausprd01.prod.outlook.com >>> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pestlist/ME2PR01MB550808E82775AED47D833933EE339%40ME2PR01MB5508.ausprd01.prod.outlook.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >>> . >>> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "MuseumPests" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to pestlist+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >> To view this discussion on the web visit >> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pestlist/CALyMK0FnWBbBTpoyuC368Vi%2BWCFo%3D_n%2BTcvG529MwRCAmvnPNg%40mail.gmail.com >> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pestlist/CALyMK0FnWBbBTpoyuC368Vi%2BWCFo%3D_n%2BTcvG529MwRCAmvnPNg%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >> . >> > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MuseumPests" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to pestlist+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pestlist/CAJDA2ScuRQyrM5vXT%2BC3vYmXYM1h4DWsbLkgAVfxuSuKZkG6FQ%40mail.gmail.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pestlist/CAJDA2ScuRQyrM5vXT%2BC3vYmXYM1h4DWsbLkgAVfxuSuKZkG6FQ%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MuseumPests" group. 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