Moths Aplenty

I've tried swatting at them and putting all our food in sealed containers, but the moths persist. However, I noticed the other day that there was a bug trap in the top of the pantry. It was very old, but it looked like it had done a decent job at catching things, so I ordered some new ones through Amazon.com. The traps (Xlure R.T.U.) come in six packs and aren't necessarily cheap.

The lures come in a resealable package, a necessity because it they operate by releasing pheromones that attract moths who think they are going to get free sex. I thought I would have just a few moths that would immediately swarm to the lure, and that would be that. What happened instead was that I had about 20 moths immediately start swarming, but none went to the lure; they just came out in the open. So, the first thing I learned here was that I had a lot bigger moth problem than I imagined and that I would probably need to let the lure just sit there for a while. My presumption was that the pheromones were so strong that they actually disoriented the moths and that they couldn't follow the scent. I figured that was still OK because being disoriented may have meant that they weren't going to jump at each other and reproduce.

So, I waited a few days before I looked inside the trap again. (The trap is a box that has four interior sides that are coated with sticky areas to hold the moths who venture inside.) There were moths stuck to the bottom interior surface; maybe 20. So I rotated the lure so that what had been the ceiling now became the floor and waited a few more days. Again, about 20 moths were stuck to the bottom surface. Next, I put one of the sides on the bottom and after a few days rotated it one more time.

Each lure is supposed to work for about eight weeks. After looking at it, however, I decided to just get rid of this one and start a new one. So, as you can see in the photo, I caught between 60 and 80 moths. (Each little blip on the surface is a moth.) I hope this is getting rid of them faster than they can reproduce. It is certainly getting rid of them faster than my swatting.