Hi all,
I’m honestly at my wits’ end and hoping someone here has been through this. I’ve been dealing with clothing moths for years now. Not weeks. Not months. Years. I’ve cleaned, decluttered, washed everything I own more times than I can count, but they always come back.
At this point I’m not even sure where they’re coming from anymore — closets, storage bins, maybe even walls? I’m exhausted and starting to wonder if this is just something I have to live with.
Has anyone actually beaten a long-term clothing moth problem? What finally made the difference for you?
You’re definitely not alone. I fought them for about 3 years before things finally improved. What surprised me was how often the source wasn’t obvious — old rugs, forgotten wool items, even stored shoes. Until every single food source is gone, they just keep cycling.
I went through this too and totally get the mental fatigue part. One thing that helped me was stopping spot treatments and instead treating the whole room like it was contaminated. That meant emptying everything at once, not one shelf at a time.
Do you still keep any natural fabrics in open storage? For me, sealed storage was the turning point. Even one scarf left out was enough to keep them hanging around.
Same situation here in an older apartment. What finally clicked was realizing they weren’t just in closets. They were breeding under baseboards and inside carpet edges. Once I addressed those areas, sightings dropped fast.
@ThreadStarter_Lena I feel this so much. When it drags on for years, it’s not about killing moths anymore, it’s about breaking the lifecycle. Eggs are the real enemy, and they’re ridiculously easy to miss.
One mistake I made early on was thinking “I haven’t seen adults, so I’m good.” Nope. Larvae can quietly keep going for months. Consistency over time mattered way more than any single big cleanup.
Not gonna lie, I ended up donating or discarding a lot of stuff. It hurt, but once I removed anything questionable, things became manageable. It felt extreme, but it worked for me.
Has anyone else noticed they flare up seasonally? Mine always got worse late summer. Knowing that pattern helped me time deep cleanings instead of reacting in panic every time.
@WoolFreeZone Same here. Minimalism wasn’t a lifestyle choice for me, moths forced it 
Once the clutter was gone, monitoring became way easier.
Yes, there is hope. It’s slow, frustrating, and boring work, but long-term cases can be beaten. Anyone telling you there’s a quick fix probably hasn’t dealt with them for years like this.