Declaration of war!

Clothes moths are on the march and heading your way. Let battle begin, says Max Davidson

HaD English Heritage launched Operation Clothes Moth on april 1 rather than april 6, it might have invited suspicion.

Members of the public have been asked to do many things over the years, but inviting them to keep tabs on the nation’s clothes moths, those unwanted interlopers in our wardrobes, is a first.

It is hard to imagine the French or Germans doing something so exquisitely eccentric.

But there is method in the madness. Clothes moths are on the march, like a rampant new political party, and their numbers have doubled in the past five years alone, according to English Heritage, whose expert conservators have seen at first hand the destructive impact of moths.

The English Heritage moth- counters, who have been keeping tabs on the little blighters since 1997, are particularly concerned by the monopis crocicapitella, or pale- backed clothes moth, a species not previously associated with shredding cashmere pullovers, but which now seems to be baring its teeth.

‘For the past three years, we have been catching it on sticky monitoring traps impregnated with the female sex pheromone of the webbing clothes moth, or

Tineola bisselliella,’ explains amber Xavier- rowe, head of collections conservation at English Heritage.

Part of her job is to track down clothes moths with the same tenacity as Slipper of the yard trying to catch the Great Train robbers.

Exactly why there are more clothes moths around than there used to be is uncertain. Is this yet another by-product of global warming? Or is there some more complicated explanation? That is what Operation Clothes Moth is endeavouring to establish.

Members of the public are being invited to pick up a free clothes moth trap from English Heritage sites, place it in their own home and help gather the information that will map the spread of these pests across the country.

If they are picking on homeowners in Gloucestershire, but leaving the residents of Sunderland alone, we need to know. We can’t have another postcode lottery on our hands.

‘Many people know the exasperation of finding moth damage in a much-loved jumper or coat, so we want them to get involved and help us combat the rise of the clothes moth,’ says Xavier-rowe.

‘Don’t forget that, as well as damaging clothes, the moths can attack woollen carpets or upholstery, resulting in holes or patches.’

I will be curious to see what the study unearths in Oxford, where I live.

When I plunge into my wardrobe for something to wear, I find myself rejecting more clothes as motheaten than I did ten years ago. Sometimes it is a T- shirt, sometimes a pullover, on one occasion it was a pair of chinos.

I used to think the tell-tale holes were just nature’s way of telling me that I had been clinging on to the clothes for too long, way past their use-by date. But perhaps, in the dead of night, darker forces are at work.

Whether or not home-owners are minded to be foot soldiers in Operation Clothes Moth, they should certainly take a few basic precautions if they are not to be greeted with unwelcome holes in favourite items of clothing.

There is a wealth of good tips on the English Heritage website ( english-heritage.org.uk). Some — such as keeping rarely used items of clothing in tightly sealed boxes or clothes bags — are just common sense. But others would not necessarily occur to home-owners.

It is important, for example, to clean the bottoms of wardrobes as well as the clothes hanging on the rails above. Insect pests thrive on dirt and debris wherever they find it.

Open chimneys and unused flues are also a natural source of moth infestation, particularly if they go un-swept for years at a time. The more frequently you can disturb moths’ natural habitats, the less likely they are to settle there. AND

if Operation Clothes Moth seems like a case of English dottiness, consider that the battle to contain moths can boast an impeccable historical pedigree.

No one took moth-busting more seriously than Queen Elizabeth I, who routed insect pests the way she saw off the Spanish armada.

In 1590, it is recorded that eight men were employed for an entire day to beat the furs at Windsor Castle, while in 1598 it took six men four days to air the robes at the Tower of london.

Clothes moths may rank pretty low on the list of domestic nuisances, but if you are not careful, they can strike when you least expect it.

It really does not matter if that hole in your favourite pullover was gnawed by a webbing clothes moth or a white-shouldered house moth. you will still need to buy a new pullover.

So stiffen your sinews and join the people’s war on moths.