Brown House Moth are sometimes encountered in warehousing, flour and provender mills, cereal processing. The adult moth will drop to the ground if disturbed; the larvae are seldom seen or discovered.

Principally a textile pest damaging carpets, wool and non-man made fibres. Often found in clothes collections and with tapestries. It will consume dry vegetable matter and cereal products. The larvae will damage packaging materials and have been known to even bore into corks.

Eggs laid singly and are oval tapered, 100-500 are laid, the larvae hatch 10-40 days depending on temperature, larvae feed and moult for 2-5 months, they grow to 19mm long. Pupae formed and hatch in 2-8 weeks. An RH of 80% is preferred.

Badly infested materials may have to be fumigated with a suitable gas but there is a warning, some commodities will taint permanently even after the gas has been ventilated away.

If found in warehousing, flour mills or animal feed mills etc. this is usually an indicator of poor hygiene and waste material build ups not being removed. Locate the housekeeping problem and once the area is clean a residual insecticide can be applied to walls, wall/floors etc.

Misting with a ULV spray formulation will act as a knock- down for any adults on the wing. Birds nests sometimes are the source of the infestation remove and burn them if accessible and as long as they are not a protected species. Apply a residual insecticide to the area or new generation of control pheremones.

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