Clothes Moth Larvae Size
This is one of the few moth species that can damage clothing and carpets but you can deter them from households.
Clothes moth larvae size. In outside buildings it has one generation however in heated buildings it can have two or more generations. Only two moth species will damage your clothes. As you can see from the picture they have a creamy color body and a darker brown head. Casemaking clothes moths have brownish gray wings with three dark spots.
The larva makes a portable case for itself out of wool and other fibres. You will see the relative size of the grown larva compared to the weave of the knitwear in this picture for an idea of relative scale. Larvae are yellowish in color. Fully grown larvae of the casemaking clothes moth make cigar shaped open ended silken cases that are about 3 8 inch long often with pieces of infested material incorporated into the case.
Adult casemaking clothes moth actual size 1 2 inch as the larvae spins a protective case is made of the same fiber that it is digesting. The specific name is commonly misspelled biselliella for example by g. These spots can be rubbed off on older moths. Tineola bisselliella known as the common clothes moth webbing clothes moth or simply clothing moth is a species of fungus moth family tineidae subfamily tineinae it is the type species of its genus tineola and was first described by arvid david hummel in 1823.
Herrich schäffer when he established tineola. Larvae are a shiny creamy white with a brown head up to 1 2 inch long. Its case is the color of the fabric on which the larva feeds. The larvae spin long threads and construct tunnels of silk.
Larvae are about 1 3 to 1 2 inch long with pale yellow to white bodies and a brown head. The casemaking clothes moth tinea pellionella and the webbing clothes moth tineola. When grown and prior to pupation clothes moth larvae are between and inch long. Anything longer than 1 cm is likely not eating your clothing.
Case making clothes moth image licensed under cc. The larvae are typically a few millimetres long upon hatching but then grow to 1 1 5cm in length dependent on availability of food i e. Differences from indianmeal moths at about 1 4 inch long clothes moths are smaller than indianmeal moths about 1 2 inch long. The casemaking clothes moth is not as common as the webbing clothes moth.
Clothes moth larvae feed on wool feathers fur hair leather lint dust paper and occasionally cotton linen silk and synthetic fibres. Clothes moth larvae the eggs hatch as clothes moth larvae this is the destructive stage. Their wings are long and narrow. Your natural woollen and silk clothing or carpets as examples and moisture to help intake of water they cannot drink in a conventional sense and hence require humidity.
Their bodies are about 3 8 to 1 2 inches long while larvae are up to 1 2 inch long.