I have a cotton winter coat that I left in the garage. I’ve found it has several larvae attached to it with small web-looking things. I assume these are moth larvae. How should I get rid of them? I have a washing machine with a “sanitary” setting that heats up the water in order to sterilize things. If I pick off the larvae I see and put it through the sanitary washing cycle, should that kill any eggs or unseen larvae?
Depends on the temperature that the coat can tolerate but the principal benefit of ironing clothes was not to improve their appearance but to destroy the eggs and larvae of moths etc.
This use of the iron persists in many countries where air drying of clothes is common.
Worth a try. A steam iron may be even more effective that a dry one.
Failing that I imagine that dry-cleaning would work as the chemicals used should kill just about anything.
I’ve never heard of a “sanitary” cycle. Heating water up = if that means 90 C then it’s probably too hot for a normal coat (cotton winter coat? what kind of winters do you have that it’s not wool?).
The visible larvae are the ones munching on the fabric right now, but the adult (flying) moths have already laid a bunch of eggs which are invisible to the naked eye and impossible to pick off, which will mature over the next days and continue munching after you picked the grown larvae off.
The usual solution is not heat, but cold: put the whole thing into a study plastic bag, seal tight, and put into a deep freezer for at least 3-4 days. This should kill the larvae and eggs.
Also, get some hard soap or vinegar into your water and wash out everything near that coat to remove all eggs. And look where the moths could have come in - they can bite through plastic, the nasties! You want to be sure it’s free before bringing it inside near other clothes.
Yes it is a woolen coat. Moths don’t eat cotton or synthetic. And wool will be very damaged by washing it hot, so don’t use your sanitary cycle. That’s for cotton terry cloth, mostly.
Here’s a good article with pictures.
I would use dry cleaning.
freezing will kill larvae and adults, eggs may survive freezing and will hatch after getting warm for enough time. refreeze to kill newly hatched larvae but before adults. it may take 2 or 3 cycles of correctly timed freeze and warm exposures.
I understand that tossing an item into a medium hot dryer (160° F) for 20 minutes will kill bedbugs, so I suspect that it will certainly kill moths. I’m not sure if you will damage your coat at those temperatures though.
It’s cotton with polyester filling. I’ve put it in the washer before, but the label says to use cold water.
If it’s definitely cotton, I’d suspect that the bugs aren’t eating any fabric but just using it as a handy place to build cocoons and/or lay eggs. You still want to get rid of them because ew, who wants to wear bugs, but they may not be damaging anything. The critters you describe sound like what we used to find attached to pretty much anything stored outside in Austin, including things like all-plastic lawn furniture. We have had luck simply pulling the nasty little webby cocoons off and keeping affected items stored inside or in rigid (hard plastic) airtight containers.
The moths I get eat not only wool but also my nice cotton shirts - regulard round holes in them. If it’s pure cotton, with only polyester lining, I can believe the moths eating the cotton part and leaving the poly alone.