NYE Private Client · By appointment only
Clothes Moth Treatment in Short Hills, Summit, Chatham, Essex Fells and Montclair, New Jersey
The Midtown Direct wardrobe,in a 1925 Tudor with the original cedar closet.
Short Hills, Summit, Chatham, Essex Fells and Montclair wardrobes are assessed by an Associate Certified Entomologist and processed on site with heat, freezing, steam and HEPA vacuuming. Nothing leaves the property. Programs from $3,000, seventy-five minutes from our Brooklyn office.
Jorge Bedoya, ACEUpdated November 1, 20268 min readShort Hills to Montclair: cedar closets, walk-up attics and the 7:52 to Penn Station
Short Hills (07078) carries a 2025 median sale price of $2.42 million, fourth in the state, and ranks in the top twenty ZIPs in the country by per-capita income; Essex Fells, Summit, Chatham and Upper Montclair are the same buyer on the same train line, in the same houses. Those houses were built between about 1905 and 1940 for exactly this commute: Tudor Revival, Georgian and Colonial Revival on the hills above the Midtown Direct, with slate roofs, a built-in cedar closet in the primary bedroom, a third-floor attic with knee-wall storage, a back staircase with a closet under it, and wool wall-to-wall carpet that has survived three owners and two decorators.
The cedar closet is the Short Hills moth story, as it is in Scarsdale across the river. Original cedar lost its oil decades ago, and even fresh cedar only discourages adults; it does nothing to larvae that arrived inside a folded sweater. Homeowners trust the closet, store the finest wool in it, and leave it shut from April to October. The attic knee-wall is the second site, where winter coats, wool rugs and the children’s ski clothes sit in cardboard until the first cold week. The third is the carpet edge under the radiator and the baseboard, where larvae feed for years in a house that is otherwise immaculate.
A great share of these households keep an apartment in the city or a weekend house in the Hamptons, Vermont or the Berkshires, and wool travels between them in a duffel. When the assessment finds activity we treat the city residence under the same report within two weeks, and in New York the whole program, including any structural work, is performed by New York Exterminating under its own license.
Nothing leaves your home.
Assessment, processing, monitoring and a report, in one visit.
The full program is described hour by hour on the Private Client page, and the way it runs in New Jersey on the New Jersey page. Here it runs like this.
Private assessment, $750
Jorge Bedoya, ACE, inspects every closet, storage room, barn and rug and photographs each garment as clear, at risk or infested, rated against our Fabric and Brand Care Index. 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, steamed and HEPA-vacuumed; rugs are done on both sides. Everything goes back in its photographed order.
Report and monitoring
You receive the Private Client Report with findings, inventory, probe and freezer logs, and the New Jersey partner’s documentation where a product was applied to the structure. Monitors are read at 30, 60 and 90 days; those visits verify, they do not re-treat.
Seventy-five minutes from Midwood via the Verrazzano, the Goethals and I-78 to Short Hills, Summit and Chatham; about the same to Essex Fells and Upper Montclair via Route 280. Most programs are one day; houses with a full third-floor attic and wool carpet throughout are sometimes the two-day Plus program. Booked Tuesday to Thursday.
What we expect to rate most often between Short Hills and Montclair:
| Garment | Why moths want it | Rating | How we handle it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cashmere and camel coats that ride the Midtown Direct | Worn daily, soiled at the collar, hung in two closets | Freeze | Frozen on site; the city closet is checked under the same report. |
| Wool in the original cedar closet | Trusted, closed from April to October, undisturbed | Freeze | Freeze or heat by rating; the closet itself emptied, steamed and vacuumed, and its cedar explained honestly. |
| Winter coats, ski wear and rugs in the attic knee-wall | Stored in cardboard, opened in November | Heat, probed | Chamber with a probe inside the fold; the knee-wall treated as a source. |
| Wool wall-to-wall in pre-war rooms | Edges under radiators and baseboards hide larvae for years | Treated in place | Lifted at the tack strip where possible, HEPA-vacuumed and steamed; the structure step, if needed, by the New Jersey partner. |
| Antique rugs in the principal rooms | Wool pile under furniture that has not moved in years | Case by case | Both sides inspected; steamed and vacuumed in place, or frozen by size. Antique and silk rugs to your restorer. |
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
In New Jersey, New York Exterminating performs the assessment, the on-site heat, freezing, steam and HEPA processing, the monitoring and the report. Any pesticide application to the structure, when the assessment finds one is warranted, is performed by a New Jersey-licensed company under its own license, scheduled by us and shown as a separate line. How New Jersey is different. Any repeat service within six months of a program is 50% of the original price. Payment plans are available.
The same program,
on every side of the city.
“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 Short Hills, Summit, Chatham or Montclair.
Tell us the street, the size of the wardrobe, whether the house has a cedar closet and an attic, and what you have seen. We reply the same business day.
New York Exterminating, Inc. · 1115 E 13th St, Brooklyn, NY 11230 · NYSDEC #15140 · 4.9 stars from 82 Google reviews · English and Spanish
Luxury Fabric and Brand Care IndexSixty entries: cashmere, vicuña, tailoring, fur, rugs, and how each is treated
The Complete Guide to Treating Clothes Moths ProperlyMethod, chamber, screening rules and service day
Clothes moth larvae: identificationCasings, webbing and grazing on wool and silk
Carpet beetles in New Jersey estate homesShed skins, bare patches on rugs and a colony outside the wardrobe: the other program, same day, same report
Clothes moths in Short Hills & Summit: FAQ
Does the original cedar closet protect anything?
Not any more. Cedar oil fades from the surface within a year or two and only ever deterred some adult moths; it never killed eggs or larvae. A closed cedar closet full of wool is a dark, undisturbed room full of food. The assessment treats it as the likely source, not the safe zone.
Is New York Exterminating licensed in New Jersey?
Our pesticide business registration and applicator certification are in New York State. Here we perform the assessment, on-site heat, freezing, steam and HEPA processing, monitoring and the report, none of which is a pesticide application. If the structure needs a product applied, a New Jersey-licensed company performs it under its own license, scheduled by us and documented in your report. See our New Jersey page.
Can you treat our Manhattan apartment at the same time?
Yes, under the same program and report, within the same two weeks.
How is the program priced?
A one-day Estate Wardrobe Program at $3,000 covers up to three closets, about 200 garments and two rugs. The two-day Plus program at $4,500 covers every closet, the cedar closet, the attic and the carpeted rooms, up to six rugs. The price is fixed at the $750 assessment, which is credited to a program booked within 30 days.
What if a piece is beyond what you can process on site?
It goes to the right specialist, and we make the call: a furrier’s cold vault for furs and shearling, a textile conservator for couture and needlepoint, a rug restorer for antique and silk rugs. Each hand-off is recorded in the report.
