This is off-topic, but I hope someone can point me in the right
direction.
My house has been invaded by both ants and carpet moths! (new carpet in
the living room, and that's where they're coming from. I thought that
the ants were coming in because they'd found a food source, but that
doesn't seem to be it - they're throughout the house. I've been spraying
outside with home pest control, but don't want to use it inside because
of Bobby (my bird.) We steam-cleaned the rug but it didn't affect the
moths, either.
While it's very amusing to watch the persians "poinging" 4 feet straight
up to catch the moths, I really would love to get rid of both pests, but
birds are very sensitive and I don't want to take a chance with Bobby.
Any thoughts or suggestions?
Thanks,
Karla
I've also heard (probably on this list) that a chalk line works well as a
barrier, too.
Sophia (yippee, i finally got a shower)
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We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works,
which God prepared in advance for us to do." Ephesians 2:10
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Sophia Hansen fia@netcentral.net
> This is off-topic, but I hope someone can point me in the right
> direction.
> My house has been invaded by both ants and carpet moths!
For some ants at least baby powder is a wonderful non-toxic deterrent. I
learned this from this list some years ago and it always works---confuses
their scent trails--I wasn't sure if it was the talcum, the scent or what
so went with the regular Johnson's Baby Powder (learned to use the
cornstarch when I had a baby to put in on as that is safer!) and it always
works--they disappear pretty quickly, although you may need to leave the
powder down for awhile (if you remove it they may come back).
Debbie in Williamsburg, VA USDA Zone 7/8 Sunset zone 31/32
Debbie writes:
> For some ants at least baby powder is a wonderful non-toxic deterrent. I
> learned this from this list some years ago and it always works---confuses
> their scent trails-
This is very smart. Their pheromones are oil based and the baby powder would
definitely interfere w/ that.
Diatomaceous Earth (garden not pool variety) is also good for both ants and
the larvae of the moths, but avoid inhaling it. Otherwise it is quite safe.
Baited boric acid will also kill ants safely.
If the carpet moths are pantry moths there are pheromone traps that have
sticky insides that work great. GardensAlive catalog sells them as well as
either Home Trends or Alsto's.
Julianne
