Handled personally by Jorge Bedoya, ACE
Your traps only catch males.We handle the other 99%.
Pheromone traps are baited with female scent. They tell you moths are present and they remove some males — but the females, the eggs, the larvae and the pupae are untouched, and the larvae are the only stage that eats your clothing. We treat the entire life cycle.
The moth you see
is not the one eating your clothes.
Adult clothes moths do not feed on fabric. They have one job, which is to reproduce. The damage is done entirely by the larvae — and larvae avoid light, stay inside folds, seams, linings and the dark back of a closet, and are small enough to be missed on any casual inspection.
So the fluttering moth in your bedroom is a symptom, not the problem. By the time you see one, eggs have already been laid somewhere you are not looking, and larvae are already feeding on wool, cashmere, silk, fur or feather — the keratin fibres they digest.
A pheromone trap is baitedwith female scent.
That is the entire mechanism. The lure imitates the female sex pheromone, which attracts males looking to mate. It works — and that is precisely the limitation.
Adult males. That’s it.
Males are drawn to the lure and stick. You get a useful signal that an infestation exists and roughly how heavy it is.
Females
Not attracted to a lure imitating their own scent. She continues laying eggs on your garments while the trap fills with males.
Eggs and larvae
Immobile or hidden in fabric. The larvae are the feeding stage — the ones causing every hole you will find.
Pupae
Sealed in cocoons tucked into seams, carpet edges and closet corners, waiting to emerge into a new generation.
Six mechanisms.Every life stage covered.
No single method reaches eggs inside a seam, larvae inside a lining, pupae in a carpet edge and adults in flight. Each mechanism below closes a gap the others leave open.
Heat chamber for garments
Clothing is treated in bulk inside a controlled heat chamber that brings the entire item — fibres, folds, linings and seams — to lethal temperature. Heat kills every life stage including eggs, which nothing applied to a surface can do. It is engineered for new, expensive and delicate pieces: cashmere, silk, wool suiting, fur and couture come through it intact.
Residual suspended formulation
Applied to closet structure, shelving, baseboards and the harborage around the garments — not the garments themselves. It keeps working on anything crawling across treated surfaces long after we leave.
Nuvan gas strips
Vapour-phase treatment for enclosed spaces. Gas reaches into voids, folds and boxed storage that no spray can physically enter, treating the entire enclosed volume rather than only the surfaces we can touch.
Vacuum extraction
Physical removal of eggs, larvae, pupal cases, shed skins and the keratin debris — pet hair, lint, wool fibre — that feeds the next generation. Unglamorous and completely essential.
Long-residual larvicide
A growth-regulating larvicide that remains active for more than seven months. Clothes moth eggs hatch on their own schedule over an extended period, so a treatment that stops working in six weeks simply hands the closet back to the next hatch.
Microinjected pyrethrins in base oil
Injected into cracks, joints, carpet edges and structural voids where pupae and larvae shelter. The oil carrier penetrates rather than sitting on the surface, and it kills on contact — reaching the stages hiding in places no other method gets to.
We do not monitorfor a full month.
This is deliberate, and it is the part clients question most often until it is explained.
Put traps back too soon and you will catch moths. Of course you will — treatment is still working through the population, and stages that had not yet emerged are still emerging. Early monitoring produces data that looks like failure while the program is succeeding, and it pushes people into unnecessary re-treatments and panic.
Waiting a full month lets mortality complete across every life stage and lets any surviving eggs finish hatching into an environment that is now hostile to them. Only then does a trap count mean anything. You get an honest assessment instead of a biased one.
This one I do myself.
Clothes moth work is the service I keep personally. The reason is that almost every decision on this job is a judgment call rather than a procedure — which garments go in the chamber and at what loading, where pupae are likely sheltering in a specific closet’s construction, whether debris in a carpet edge is the actual food source, how to treat a space full of irreplaceable clothing without damaging any of it.
That is entomology and material handling at the same time, and the cost of getting it wrong is somebody’s wedding dress or their grandfather’s coat. Jorge Bedoya, Associate Certified Entomologist.
Hanging traps and this are not the same service.
The NYE program
All four life stages addressed by named mechanisms.
Heat chamber that kills eggs and is safe for delicate garments.
Vapour treatment reaching enclosed voids sprays cannot enter.
Larvicide active 7+ months, matched to the hatch window.
Microinjection in oil that penetrates rather than coats.
Monitoring at one month so the reading is unbiased.
Performed by an Associate Certified Entomologist.
The typical moth visit
Pheromone traps hung, adults sprayed.
Males removed. Females, eggs, larvae and pupae untouched.
Nothing reaches inside folds, linings or boxed storage.
Residual gone in weeks, well before the eggs finish hatching.
Surface spray that never penetrates the harborage.
Re-monitoring in a week, producing a false failure signal.
A technician following a script around irreplaceable clothing.
$450 to $2,500, quoted upfront.
Clothes moth work is priced after inspection because volume of clothing is the main driver — the chamber treats in bulk, but a single closet and a full wardrobe room are different jobs.
Volume of garments
How much clothing needs heat treatment, and how many chamber cycles that takes.
Number of areas
One closet, several closets, a dressing room, storage boxes elsewhere in the apartment.
How established it is
An early infestation caught after a few holes is a fraction of the work of one that has spread through stored textiles for a year.
Materials and delicacy
Fur, couture and antique textiles need slower, more careful handling.
Carpets and upholstery
Wool rugs and upholstered furniture are also food sources and extend the treatment area.
Cheaper than what they’re eating.
Klarna, Affirm and Afterpay through Stripe. One cashmere coat usually costs more than the treatment protecting the entire wardrobe.
Estimate only. Final terms come from the provider at checkout and depend on approval.
Clothes moth treatment in NYC: FAQ
Do pheromone traps get rid of clothes moths?
No. Pheromone traps are baited with an imitation of the female sex pheromone, so they attract and catch adult males only. Females, eggs, larvae and pupae are unaffected — and the larvae are the stage that actually eats fabric. Traps are a monitoring tool that tells you an infestation exists and roughly how heavy it is. They are not control.
Do the moths I see flying around eat my clothes?
No. Adult clothes moths do not feed on fabric; their role is reproduction. All damage is done by the larvae, which avoid light and stay inside folds, seams, linings and dark closet corners. Seeing an adult means eggs have likely already been laid somewhere you are not looking.
Will heat treatment damage expensive or delicate clothing?
Our chamber is engineered for exactly this: cashmere, silk, wool suiting, fur and couture are treated in bulk and come through intact. Heat is the only method that reliably kills every life stage including eggs, and it does so without leaving residue on garments you wear against your skin.
Why do you use six different methods?
Because no single one reaches every stage. Heat treats the garments; vapour strips reach enclosed voids and boxed storage; residual formulation protects closet structure; a long-residual larvicide covers the extended hatch window; microinjected pyrethrins in oil penetrate cracks and carpet edges where pupae shelter; and vacuuming physically removes eggs, cases and the keratin debris feeding the next generation.
Why does the larvicide need to last seven months?
Because clothes moth eggs do not all hatch at once. They emerge over an extended period, so a residual that expires in six weeks simply returns the closet to the next wave of larvae. Matching the treatment window to the biology is what prevents the recurrence people blame on bad luck.
Why won’t you monitor for a month after treatment?
Because monitoring too early gives a misleading answer. Treatment is still working through the population and stages that had not yet emerged are still emerging, so early trap counts look like failure while the program is succeeding — which pushes people into unnecessary re-treatment. A full month lets mortality complete and any remaining eggs finish hatching, so the reading is honest rather than biased.
Who actually performs the treatment?
Jorge Bedoya, Associate Certified Entomologist, performs clothes moth work personally. Nearly every decision on this job is judgment rather than procedure — garment loading, likely pupation sites in a specific closet, identifying the true food source — and the cost of an error is somebody’s irreplaceable clothing.
What do clothes moth larvae actually eat?
Keratin. That means wool, cashmere, silk, fur, feathers and animal-hair blends. They are also drawn to items with body oils, perspiration or food residue, which is why stored garments that were put away unworn-but-unwashed are so often where damage begins.
Traps told you they’re here. Now do something about it.
Jorge Bedoya, ACE, performs every clothes moth treatment at NYE personally. If your traps keep filling and the holes keep appearing, that is not a failed treatment — it is a trap doing exactly what a trap does.
$450–$2,500 · Every life stage treated · Heat chamber safe for delicates · Financing available · Performed by Jorge Bedoya, ACE · Se habla español
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How long has it been going on?
The longer it runs, the further it spreads — the single biggest factor in what a job costs.
Free quote · No obligation · Residential NYC · Led by Jorge Bedoya, ACE
