NYE Private Client · By appointment only
Clothes Moth Treatment in the Hamptons: Southampton, Water Mill, Bridgehampton, Sagaponack, Wainscott, East Hampton and Amagansett
A closed house is a moth incubator.We time the program to opening and closing.
Between October and May an East End house sits closed, heated low, with a wardrobe of wool inside it. Private Client treats it as a two-day program timed to spring opening or fall closing, with nothing leaving the property.
Jorge Bedoya, ACEUpdated November 1, 20267 min readThe Hamptons: the seasonal house is the ideal moth habitat
Sagaponack and Water Mill rank third and fifth in the country by median home sale price, at about $5.9 million and $5.5 million, with Wainscott close behind. The Census income figures for these ZIPs understate the houses badly, because most owners file from a Manhattan address. The wardrobes are the Manhattan wardrobes, moved out for the season, and that move is the moth problem.
A seasonal house is left closed from October to May with the heat set low, which is exactly what a webbing clothes moth needs: dark, undisturbed, with a closet of wool and cashmere that nobody opens for seven months. Larvae feed all winter. The owner arrives Memorial Day weekend, finds holes in the sweaters left behind, and moths follow the duffel back to the city in September. A great many Manhattan and Westchester infestations we treat started in an East End closet, and the reverse is just as common.
That is why Private Client runs the Hamptons as a two-day program timed to the calendar: a closing program in September or October, after the summer wardrobe is put away and before the house is shut, or an opening program in April or May before the family arrives. We also treat the city residence under the same report when the assessment finds activity, so the two houses stop reinfesting each other.
Nothing leaves your home.
Assessment, processing, treatment and a report, in one visit.
The full program is described hour by hour on the Private Client page. In Southampton it runs like this.
Private assessment, $750
Jorge Bedoya, ACE, inspects every closet, storage room and rug and photographs each garment as clear, at risk or infested. You receive the inventory and a fixed program price. The fee is credited to a program booked within 30 days.
Processed on site
Heat-safe garments go through our chamber in your home with a probe in the core of the load. Cashmere, silk and anything delicate is frozen in our portable freezers. Closets are emptied, HEPA-vacuumed and treated in the structure; rugs are done on both sides.
Report and monitoring
Everything goes back in its original order. You receive the Private Client Report with findings, inventory, probe and freezer logs. Monitors are read at 30, 60 and 90 days; those visits verify, they do not re-treat.
Two hours fifteen minutes to two and a half from Midwood. Hamptons programs are booked as two-day overnight trips on the Plus program, or as one-day programs when two neighboring houses book the same week. Spring opening (April to May) and fall closing (September to October) are the right windows; book twelve days ahead.
What we rate most often in East End houses:
| Garment | Why moths want it | Rating | How we handle it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cashmere and fine knits left in a closed house over winter | Seven undisturbed months in a low-heat house | Freeze | Freeze on site before closing; sealed in archival bags with breathable covers for the winter. |
| Beach and pool-house wool: throws, blankets, cover-ups | Damp, rarely used rooms | Heat, probed | Chamber load; pool house and guest closets treated in the structure. |
| Sisal, wool and silk rugs in rooms closed for the season | Larvae feed undisturbed under furniture | Heat, probed | Both sides inspected; treated in place, or frozen by size. Silk to your restorer with our findings. |
| Summer linen, cotton and synthetics | Not moth food; a sign the real source is elsewhere | Heat | Routine chamber load. We ask what wool shares the closet. |
Brand names describe fibre, construction and care only. New York Exterminating is not affiliated with any maker named. The full Luxury Fabric and Brand Care Index, sixty entries from vicuña to piano felt, is the reference behind every rating on this page.
Three ways to engage us.
Prices are fixed at the assessment.
Wardrobe Assessment
Estate Wardrobe Program
Estate Wardrobe Program Plus
Any repeat service within six months of a program is 50% of the original price. Payment plans are available. Apartments in the city are covered by our standard clothes moth service. We also handle mice and rats, bed bugs, carpet beetles, ants and recurring protection for Southampton homes under the same contact and the same standards of discretion.
The same program,
across the North Shore, Westchester and the East End.
Old Westbury, Roslyn, Roslyn Harbor & East HillsTwo-acre houses, cedar rooms, horse country
Gold Coast: Locust Valley, Mill Neck, Oyster Bay CoveHeirloom textiles and hundred-year-old closets
Cold Spring Harbor, Lloyd Harbor & HuntingtonHarbor humidity and seasonal storage
Scarsdale, Edgemont & HartsdaleTudor cedar closets and the attic nobody opens
Rye, Purchase, Harrison & Rye BrookSound-side humidity and estate-scale storage
Armonk, Chappaqua, Bedford, Pound Ridge & KatonahCountry houses, barns, guest wings and long-stored wool
All areas and the full programPackages, the day hour by hour, the report
“I do the assessment myself because the assessment is the job. Anyone can run a heat chamber. Knowing which jacket has horsehair canvas inside it, which coat will delaminate at 120 degrees and which rug is the actual source is what you are paying for. If I would not put a garment of my own through a step, it does not go through that step.”
Environmental scientist by training. NYSDEC #15140. What an ACE is · About Jorge
Request a private assessment in Southampton.
Tell us the town, the size of the wardrobe and what you have seen. We reply the same business day with the next available dates.
New York Exterminating, Inc. · 1115 E 13th St, Brooklyn, NY 11230 · NYSDEC #15140 · 4.9 stars from 82 Google reviews · English and Spanish
The Complete Guide to Treating Clothes Moths ProperlyMethod, chamber, brand index and service day
Luxury Fabric and Brand Care IndexSixty entries: cashmere, vicuña, tailoring, fur, rugs, and how each is treated
Clothes moth larvae: identificationCasings, webbing and grazing on wool and silk
Why clothes moths keep coming backCashmere, rugs and the storage habit that feeds them
Clothes moths in Southampton: FAQ
When should a Hamptons house be treated, opening or closing?
Closing, if you have to choose. Treating in September or October, after the summer wardrobe is stored and before the house is shut, stops larvae from feeding all winter. An opening program in April or May catches what a closed house produced and clears it before the family arrives.
Can you treat our city apartment at the same time?
Yes. When the assessment finds activity, we treat the Manhattan or Westchester residence under the same program and the same report, within the same two weeks, so garments do not carry larvae back and forth.
How is a Hamptons program priced?
As an overnight two-day Estate Wardrobe Program Plus at $4,500, which covers every closet, attic and guest house, up to six rugs. When two neighboring houses book the same week we can run one-day $3,000 programs for each.
Can the house manager or caretaker open the house for you?
Yes, and that is how most East End programs run. The caretaker opens, our two technicians work the day, closets are reset to their photographed order, and the report goes to the manager first.
Do you cover Amagansett and Montauk?
Amagansett, yes, under the same program. Montauk is quoted separately because of the extra distance.
