Why Is It, That Moths Eat Wool?

A variety of moth is called “The clothes moth”. Most people blame it for making the moth holes in our clothes and rugs. But the moth was not doing any damage at all.

The moth never eats. It lives only to produce eggs and then dies. The entire damage produces eggs and then dies. The entire damage is caused when the moth was in a caterpillar stage. The eggs of the moth are laid on wool, fur, etc. In about a week, the eggs hatch into caterpillars. What happen then depends on the kind of moth. Since there are three different kinds of clothes moths in North America.

One is the Case-making variety. It makes little tubular case out of the wool it eats and lives the case with silk. There it lives as a caterpillar. The caterpillar of the webbing moth along leaves cob-webby trail of its silk and spins a silk cocoon. As the tapestry caterpillar moth eats into wool, it makes a number of tunnels which it lines with silk. When grown up it goes into one of these tunnels and stays there until very ready to come out as a moth.

We see now the problem of protecting clothes against moths. Make sure that no eggs are laid on the clothes. Before the clothes are put away for the summer, they should be aired, brushed to make sure that there are no eggs of moth on them. It is a good idea to wrap them in heavy paper or in a tight sealed cardboard box, for the clothes moths cannot eat through paper. Moth balls keep the moth away, but do not kill the eggs or larvae which may already be present?