6 Practical Tips for Preventing Pests in Your Closet System

Try Natural Repellents

Natural insect repellents often smell good to people, but insects tend not to like them at all. This makes them perfect for closet use: Your clothes, shoes, and accessories will pick up the fragrances, and any critters in the area will, with any luck, pack up their bags and leave.

Here is a list of natural repellents courtesy of pest control company Greenix for you to try:

• Citronella for mosquitoes, flies, roaches, and ants
• Peppermint for ants, beetles, fleas, flies, moths, roaches, spiders, and ticks
• Clove oil for mites, aphids, thrips, armyworms, and stink bugs
• Cedar for cockroaches, mosquitoes, moths, ants, and termites
• Lavender oil for mosquitoes, fleas, flies, and moths
• Eucalyptus for lice, spiders, flies, ants, and roaches

If you’re not sure which insects have invaded your closet systems, that’s the first order of business. Then you can use scented oils or sachets to keep the troublesome insects at bay.

Get a Clothing Brush

Do you own a clothing brush? If you answered no and your closet system is being overrun with pests, then you might want to change that. A clothing brush collects all the lint, hair, and dirt that can accumulate on clothes even when they’re clean. You simply brush the garment on its exterior side, making sure to get the front, back, and sides. Voila, your clothes will look as good as new and better. Even lower-cost items look rack-ready after being treated by a clothing brush.

Okay, so what does this have to do with insects, you ask? Well, when you comb your clothes with a clothing brush, you can crush moth larvae and eggs. According to Real Simple, the larvae that aren’t crushed will come toppling out of your clothing, where you can then collect them and dispose of them. When combing your clothing with the brush, be sure to target pockets, folds, and seams especially to ensure you remove the larvae and eggs entirely!

Keep Your Closet Neat

Think of your neat closet system as an empty park. Now imagine that each time you add to the closet, the park gets more attractions built. Soon, there’s so much to do that it’s a verifiable playground and no one wants to leave. That’s how pests feel when they come across a cluttered closet system.

For the insect species that nosh on fabric, there’s so much food here that a bug would never go hungry. Others like the warmth of fabric and will lay some eggs. More still might appreciate the darkness between all those overstuffed garments. Once you empty your closet and create an organization system that works moving forward, you’re giving pests less of a chance to propagate.

Vacuum Often

It’s not enough to keep your closet system neat, even if that will go a long way toward preventing pests. If your carpet system is also carpeted, then you need to take the time at least weekly to vacuum every corner of the closet. You’ll suck up the pests that fell from your clothes or never made it there in the first place. If any bugs were trying to eat your tasty carpet fibers, they too will be eliminated after one pass-through with the vacuum cleaner.

When you’re done cleaning up your closet, be sure to empty the vacuum bag or canister. You don’t want to allow the bugs (that could still be alive in there) a chance to escape and go right back to the closet!

Use Vacuum-Sealed Bags for Offseason Items

Are you keeping your offseason clothing, shoes, and linens in plastic buckets or, even worse, garbage bags? Well, there’s some bad news and some worse news. The bad news is that small critters can easily reach their way into a closed plastic bucket since the lid leaves an opening. The worse news is that garbage bags are easily torn to shreds by hungry critters.

What you need instead is a vacuum-sealed bag for your off-season items. The bag when pressure-sealed will create an airtight seal so that nothing can get in and nothing can get out. You won’t come back to your favorite outfits next season reeking of that terrible musty odor, nor will you have to worry about mold possibly growing on your shoes (yes, it can happen). Oh, and no pests, either!  

Don’t Put Dirty Clothes Back in the Closet

If there are two things pests love, it’s dirt and sweat. Your worn clothes have both in droves, so the last place your used garments belong is back in the closet. Used means wearing anything once. Even if you only had the clothing on for several hours, that’s still enough time for dirt and skin oils to accumulate. Don’t put the item back in the closet but in your hamper or, better yet, straight in the washing machine! 

Conclusion 

Pests in your closet system can be a real problem, but fortunately, it’s one that you can quickly nip in the bud. The six solutions presented today will help you take back your closet from unwanted pests and preserve your items. Good luck!

Sources

• https://www.realsimple.com/home-organizing/stop-clothes-moths
• https://www.greenixpc.com/blog/pest-prevention/essential-oils-that-repel-insects-naturally/