Are pantry moths and clothes moths the same?

No, they are different moths with different food. Pantry moths eat dry food like flour, rice and nuts. Clothes moths eat wool, cashmere, silk and other animal fibres. A pantry moth in the kitchen will not move into your jumpers, and a clothes moth will not touch your cereal. So the first job is working out which one you have, because the fix for one does nothing for the other.

How to tell them apart

• Pantry moth: wings with two tones, pale grey near the body and a coppery or reddish brown outer half. Flies about the kitchen, often in the evening, and rests on walls and ceilings. Signs: webbing and clumps in dry food, small cream caterpillars, cocoons in cupboard corners.
• Clothes moth: smaller, plain golden or straw coloured, a bit shiny. Avoids light and tends to run or flutter low rather than fly about. Found in wardrobes, drawers, under beds and at the edges of rugs. Signs: holes in wool and cashmere, bare patches in wool carpets, silky tubes or little cases on fabric.

Where you find them matters as much as how they look. Kitchen and food: pantry moth. Bedroom, wardrobe and fabric damage: clothes moth. Our clothes moth guide has close-ups of both the moth and the damage.

Moths in the porch, or by a door

One or two moths a day near an outside door may be neither. Plenty of garden moths fly in towards lights at night and eat nothing in your home. Before you lay new carpet, it is still worth a look:

1. Check the old carpet at the edges and under furniture for bare patches, webbing or small larvae.
2. Put up a clothes moth pheromone trap in the porch for a few weeks. If it catches nothing, clothes moths are unlikely to be the cause.
3. Vacuum the floor well once the old carpet is up, including gaps between boards, before the new one goes down.

Webbing inside a sealed jar

That is a pantry moth sign. Either the eggs were already in the rice when it was bought, or the lid was not truly airtight. Bin the contents, wash the jar, and check the seal.

Bug spray will not help here. Larvae live inside food and in cracks, where a spray does not reach, and most sprays must not be used near food at all. The fix is removing infested food, cleaning, and sealed storage.

Food and family: never spray insect killer on or near food, food shelves or children’s clothes unless the product label says it is allowed there. Keep traps and any product out of reach of kids and pets.

The right plan for each

• Pantry moths: check every dry food, bin what has signs, vacuum and wipe the shelves, move food into hard sealed containers. Start with what food to throw out, and if they return, find the hidden source.
• Clothes moths: find the damaged items, vacuum deep, wash hot or freeze what can be treated, and store clean wool sealed. See clothes moths without mothballs and protecting wool and cashmere.

Pheromone traps help with both, as a check rather than a cure, but each species needs its own lure. A pantry moth trap will not catch clothes moths, and the other way round. See how to use moth traps.

Holes in clothes, but no moths?

Clothes moths are not the only thing that eats fabric. Carpet beetle larvae, small and bristly, also chew wool and natural fibres and are easy to miss. If you have damage but your traps stay empty, read where carpet beetle larvae hide.

Still not sure which moth you have? Keep one, dead or alive, in a sealed clear bag and photograph it in good light next to where you found it. The place it turned up and the pattern on its wings usually settle it. You can also scan the photo: Shoo checks clothes moths against pantry moths, and says “not sure” when it cannot tell.