There was a moth in my daughter’s room tonight as she was trying to fall asleep. I needed to go in and murder the varmint because “I’m wearing a cotton shirt and I don’t want the moth to eat it.”
So, sure the legend is that moths eat cotton. You know though, personally, I’ve never seen or heard of it happening.
Do moths eat our cotton shirts, or not?
(Somehow I can’t help thinking this might have been a good Frank Zappa song title.)
No, but the larvae of some moths and beetles do. Only wool, as I recall.
http://www.bugclinic.com/clothes_moths.htm
I’ve never heard of moths eating cotton. They do eat wool. I know this from the years I spent in upstate New York when the cost of heating oil exceeded our mortgage payment. I sometimes wore three wool sweaters at a time. Brrrrrr. Moths chomped on the sweaters but never on the cotton shirts worn underneath.
To clarify, ordinary moths you see flying around your light bulbs do not eat clothing at any stage of the life cycle. The larvae of some species, known as clothes moths, feed on wool, fur, or hair. What they actually are eating is keratin, found in animal fibers. They do not feed on cotton, which as a plant fiber is made mostly of cellulose. The adult moth does not eat clothing, but will be seen around clothes when it is seeking place to lay eggs, or just after it has emerged from its pupa.
Other tiny creatures eat fabric (see link).
There might be damage from other critters, but the moth/larvae is the first to take blame: