Storage Tips: Protect Your Items From Clothes-Eating Insects

Choosing the right storage should keep color-degrading UV lights from your items. And a temperature controlled unit should keep mold-causing humidity away. But you should also take a few precautions to prevent insects from invading your unit, as they can damage your items. The following guide will teach you how to prevent infestations and the dangers of fabric-eating insects.

Insects That Eat Clothes

There are several species of insects that like to feed on clothes, like the following:

Moths

The most common fabric-consuming insect is the moth, which is attracted to mostly wool or silk items. They are also attracted to fabric that contains or is stained with the following:

  • Human body or hair oils
  • Sweat
  • Nails
  • Hair
  • Urine
  • Beer
  • Tomato
  • Milk
  • Sugar-infused items, like sweets or sodas

Case-Making Moth

This insect resembles the common snail, although these creatures are much smaller in size. The case-making moth is not usually attracted to a particular smell, except for its food, which includes silks, furs, feathers, wools, and cottons.

Tapestry Moth

The tapestry moth is similar to common moths, but are a lot lighter and are attracted to places with a high humidity level. These types of moths are usually found in carpets or tapestry, so be careful if you will store these items.

Carpet Beetles

Carpet beetles look like regular beetles, and they are usually found in carpets, but they are also attracted to wool. These beetles also eat lint, hair, dead insects, and other organic matter.

Silverfish

The silverfish insect is somewhat thin and is usually gray or silver color. This insect is attracted to wool, but they also eat paper, hair, and even photographs. The combination between sugar and any of the aforementioned natural fibers may attract these insects to your unit and cause irreparable damage.

Guide To Prevent Insect Infestations

Consider the following:

  1. Have your items professionally cleaned to remove organic matter like hair, hair oils, body oils, sweat, food particles and other matter that could attract insects.
  2. Store your items in a unit with no additional entrances, like cracks, and make sure the door closes tightly. 
  3. Be sure that your unit is equipped with humidity control. To be safe, keep your unit at 50 percent humidity or lower. Plus, 50 percent or lower helps keep mold and mildew from your unit.
  4. Consider using airtight containers or cedar boxes because cedar helps repel insects. But you will have to retouch your cedar wood every year or two with more cedar oil to keep it potent.

Talk to your storage specialist about other things you can do to keep your storage unit and belongings safe from damaging bugs. For more information on storage, visit websites like http://www.storageinphila.com.


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