Group - Webbing clothes moth larvae will feed on anything with keratin in it. Such as, carcasses, horn, hair, finger nails, fur, wool, wool felt, woolen carpets, and any garment made of wool, Oriental carpets, taxidermy mounts, embroidery, and very rarely silk. In the case of cubicles, as Christina has related, it's probably not human food unless it would be something with lots of protein, such as meat. Probably what's going on is huge accumulations of employee's hair accumulates under the temporary walls. The WCM larvae feed on the hair. And unfortunately, mice will die in these hollow walls where WCM's find their carcasses, which form a banquet for the larvae. These types of walls have lots of entry points for mice to travel, such as pre-cut openings for electrical receptacles and wiring traces. Tom ParkerEntomologist
-----Original Message----- From: Todd Holmberg <tholmb...@artsmia.org> To: pestlist@googlegroups.com Sent: Thu, Oct 27, 2022 11:39 am Subject: Re: [PestList] Clothes moth in office 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 | | Rebecca NewberryPronouns: she/her/hersDirector of Collections Stewardshipe: rnewbe...@smm.orgo: (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. -- 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. -- 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. -- 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/CAMxAh%2BjMkvfeWnp2r39OGXOjVHEvThSMxRV2w%3DsmwvSz28rEdg%40mail.gmail.com. -- 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/1862765117.1006967.1666890903903%40mail.yahoo.com.
