Bugs!

Beryl said:
Did you say vinegar kills eggs? Is that pure vinegar or half water half vinegar?
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I’m not entirely sure if half water half vinegar works or not. White vinegar does kill eggs though. I use the white vinegar spray bottles. I cleaned the cage with pet disinfectant but used white vinegar on some of the wood items, in the crevices. The rest I just used a sponge and fairy liquid to wash them. That washes eggs off. But to be belt and braces - vinegar in little cracks etc. The smell wears off the wood quite quickly, but on plastic and bars it seems to last longer.
 
Pantry moths do have a look about them and they tend to just sit there quite a bit - I'd be suspicious if one was near a cage as well.
 
elusive, i also wonder what kind of moth was almost stuck to the top door of Clive's cage. It's all a bit of a mistery to me with all the precautions i have in place.

I read once that they could come from birds nests and we have those under the roof. I guess they could make themselves at home in a hamster cage.

I do not kill any other moths or insects but pantry moth or unintentionally, their lookalikes. I get others and those bigger ones flattering around and always make sure they find their way out through a window or door unharmed.
 
I’ve never heard of them coming from birds nests, that seems a bit odd as most birds would eat them but maybe if it’s an abandoned nest with old food left in it they could be in there.
I think it’s often a bit of a mystery where they come from, I’ve only ever seen them twice, the first time many years ago they were in a bag of flour & if it had just been eggs or larvae I might not even have noticed, I did have them in a bag of hamster food with my first ham, long before I’d thought about freezing food but I just binned the bag & that was it.
They can be in any dry food though & get into even the tiniest cracks in cupboards & things so it’s probably easy to miss them until it’s a bit late.
 
I think it's good to err on the side of the caution if it was stuck to the door of Clive's cage and looked like a pantry moth. I also let the larger ones outside again, but I'm afraid I do squish any small ones. I don't like them being in the house and I can't always tell what type they are.

We do have a very useful spider catcher though, so those get taken outside!
 
Pantry moths are sort of long and narrow when sitting - maybe just over 1cm long, and usually a darkish colour on the back, unlike the smaller brown little moths you get. Although when I had my first outbreak of them in a cage (and all over the room) I had both pantry moths and carpet moths hatching out! After identifying them and using carpet moth traps.

I am sure there are many more moths outside than there are get into houses from outdoors so I prefer not to have them in the house if I'm not sure what type they are.
 
What's a spider catcher? I don't disturb the house spiders because they eat small moths. We used to have a big spider in the bathroom i called Eric.
 
So - don’t try putting hyacinth tunnels in the washing machine. They fall apart. Luckily I still have Pip’s old one in the freezer.
 
I set the night cam on Raffy’s cage last night and had a scan through the recording this morning to check no bugs climbing into his cage! Obviously I can’t watch all of or it would take 7 hours! But I scanned through and watched bits and no sign of anything. I did see a little moth fluttering round the living room the night before last but it was probably one of the normal ones and nowhere near the cage. It then disappeared as they do.

I had a bit of a peek through his house roof the other day and no sign of anything and his toilet needs emptying tonight so I’ll check his hoard at the same time but could see most of it the other day and all looked fine.

So if that’s fine I’ll start setting Pip’s cage up again in the living room. I don’t have everything needed yet but can make a start on it.
 
Ha! I've just been browsing the shelves in a small pet shop checking out the multichamberhouses and what did i see? A moth! I'm pretty sure that this was a pantry moth given the location of food shelves above the houses, tunnels etc.

Just shows how important it is to freeze all hamster food and natural enrichment products.
 
What kind of moth is that?
I know it's not a pantry moth so i'm not concerned.

I chased it out the window with the feather duster.

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There are so many small brown moths that look very similar unless you get a good look at the detail on their wings it’s very hard to tell them apart, probably just flew in attracted by the light.
 
This beauty flew into ours last night whilst I had the small lamp on doing Hams. I couldn’t get it out, will try again tonight.

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Looks like a box tree moth Zara. Very pretty but not good if you have any box bushes in your garden as their caterpillars destroy them🤨
 
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