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Re: citronella for moths control

Keith,

As usual a good answer with a lot of information. I also second your
request for name and, at a minimum, zone information..

To dodj@nersp.nerdc.ufl.edu,

Gardens Alive and Gardener's Supply carry a great product called Pantry
Pest that does a number on meal moths. It is essentially a sticky trap
baited with pheromenes, so no nasty chemicals to deal with. If you set one
up in an area with meal moths, within seconds every moth in the room will
be stirred up and flying around your hand as you set it on the shelf..

GA also carries a product for closet moths, but have no experience with
that one..

If your moths are larger, they are probably, as Keith says, drawn to your
porch lights and getting in when the door is opened..They aill do no damage
inside and are merely an annoyance (and soon to die)..

Gerry (TN,6b)





At 12:18 PM 5/8/97 -0700, Keith Dabney wrote:
>On Wed, 6 May 1992 dodj@nersp.nerdc.ufl.edu wrote:
>
>> hello,
>> does anybody know if citronella drives moths away?  i hear it's supposed
>> to work on mosquitos - but moths?
>> we have a problem with moths getting into our apartment, and we saw a
>> plant that has the citronella scent.  i forget what it was called. 
>> anyway, i was wondering if it would discourage moths.
>
>
>Dear   (?),
>
>	I think that it is a good idea to sign postings to discussion
>groups.  Also, when discussing growing techniques which work, how a plant
>is doing, or (as in this case) other environment-related phenomena, I
>think that people posting to the list should mention their location, even
>as generally as mentioning their home state.
>
>	Anyway, about the moths.  I would imagine that they are coming in
>at night, and that they are attracted to the light in your apartment. 
>Although there are only a couple of types, such as the "clothes moth"
>which can damage linens and some food products, I realize that moths in
>general can be annoying.  Once in a while, a moth might lay eggs on a
>house plant, and the caterpillars might damage the plant, but that is
>pretty rare and shouldn't be a problem, except for people who grow
>tomatoes in windowsills (those people would have to watch for hornworms).
>
>	I don't know anything about using citronella oil or citrus plants
>to repel moths, but I doubt that it would be very effective.  More likely,
>the moths would just enter, and would then avoid getting too close to the
>source of the odor.  It citronella does indeed repel moths, it might be a
good
>substitute for moth crystals, but this would entail enclosing the linens
>(such as wool sweaters and pants) in a container with the citronella oil
>source, so that there would be a strong concentration of the repellant
>odor.  
>
>	Trying to keep moths away by just growing a fragrant plant next to
>the window is not likely to work.  If one were to put an open dish of moth
>balls next to a closet full of woolen clothes, for instance, the moths
>would just fly right by, and would then get into the closet to lay eggs on
>the woolens.  They are persistent animals, almost seem determined, but
>that's probably too strong a word for something with such a limited
>behavioral repertoire.  Genetically hard-wired and hell bent on
>destruction (or on the miraculous propagation of life, depending on the
>perspective from which the events are viewed), would be more apt.
>
>	Not to be alarmist, but rather to show how incredibly adapted/adaptable
>these animals are: at a talk by an expert on biological control, a
>researcher told us that some of the flour/pantry moths which get into
>foodstuffs can enter a jar of flour or nuts or cereal by getting under the
>lid and circling/spiraling around the threaded screwtop pathway!  He was
>serious, and this is why people like him specify using clamp top and/or
>canning jars for
>storing foodstuffs in the pantry.  Or, just make sure that the screw top
>jars are tightly shut, is what I try to do.
>
>	Anyway, I didn't intend to launch into a lecture on moth control. 
>I would look into installing or repairing screens to help keep moths out
>of the house.  You could also hang some flypaper (I'd use the kind without
>insecticide added), and hope that some of the moths fly into it and get
>trapped.  
>
>	Hope that this helps.
>
>Cordially,
>
>Keith Dabney
>Entomology Dept.
>CA Acad. of Sciences
>San Francisco
>
>
>
>
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