Moths Help.........????

[Roto4]

We're having trouble with moths sense we have the birds in one of the bedrooms upstairs we have them up at night down in the day.....We've had birds for I say 10 years but, all of sudden we having have trouble with moths. Little ones I say we see 2 to 5 every day. We were told at a bird store that it's old birdseed we are constantly cleaning the bird cages we have only 2 now we had 3. And it's only been the last two years. Help is it really from the bird seed and, what can we do. We are keeping their jars of seeds in refrig.
We can't put mothballs around I'm very allergic to moth balls. What else can we do.......Help...............???? I'm glad to say MY Cocoa's feathers are back. Thanks to alot of good advice...Now if you can all help with this problem.....And why didn't it happen sooner ?? Hugs from Reba the Roto4

[Monica]

If all the seed is kept in the refrigerator then you need to look for another source where the moths could be coming from (flower, some type of powder food, maybe a trashcan, etc). You can get triangular moth traps, or if you get the sticky traps, you need to go buy a small cage (one for $5-$15 i.e. finch/canary cage), put the sticky trap inside the cage, and hang it where the moths most frequent...

In the least bit, they can provide good entertainment for both humans, and cats or dogs... When they were abundant here (hardly see them now), I use to play target practice with a squirt bottle, or catch them in plastic bottles, put the tops on them, give them to the cats... I might be a bit crazy, but it was a good way to pass the time and get rid of the pesky critters, too!

[Rue]

If they're stored grain pests, chances are the adults are laying eggs in whatever seed is kicking around (perhaps in cracks and crevices)...so make sure you vacuum really REALLY well until you're certain all the old seed has been cleaned up...

...the moths themselves won't hurt anything but stored grains, and they're edible...maybe the birds will munch on a few for you! If you're finding that vacuuming isn't doing the trick, you might have a moth infestation in other products in your cupboard. Check everything out and start storing these items in glass or plastic containers so the adult moths can't lay fresh eggs in them...

...you don't have to keep your new seed in the fridge...but if you want you can put it in the freezer for ~48 hours before keeping it on the counter...which should kill all eggs, larvae and pupae...

[Cheeky beaks]

I had a bad time a couple of months ago and finally found them in a box of cereal I had put away and forgot. I got rid of the box but still had a small problem. I found anything that had water in it had moths in it, so I placed small bowls of water around and sticky traps. I got more in the water bowls than on the sticky traps but I finally got rid of them. Do a real hard search of all your kitchen and pantry cupboards. Good luck Joan

[Roto4]

[I will try what you said I have a small extra cage for when we take them to my daughter's I'll use them.....We just started keeping the food in the refrig.
hopefully that will help too! Thanks so much...........Hugs from Reba the Roto4

[LtlWngdAngl]

After we lost power for almost a week after Hurricane Dennis this year, and again after we lost power for 3 days after Hurricane Katrina, between the humidity and the heat and the fact that I couldn't clean the cages daily due to not being able to use running water (it was contaminated), it created a HUGE MOTH PROBLEM. Sticky traps did almost nothing to decrease their population, and my birds and I were getting increasingly annoyed with their pressence soooooo......(of course after the power came back and I cleaned their cages out really good, threw away all the food and bought new) I put all the birds out in the driveway to enjoy the nice sunny day (in the shade of a tree), I opened all the windows in the house (left the air on to increase air flow) and went to town with a bottle of Raid flying insect killer. I got the whole house done in about 15-20 minutes, but kept the windows open and the birds out of harms way for about 3-4 hours. Before I brought the birds in I cleaned their tables, mopped and vaccuumed all the floors, cleaned surfaces, just to make sure that there was no residue left.
It was a hard day of cleaning and moving things around, but I don't have a bad problem with them again, until we lose power and water for more than 48 hours.

[jen&friends]

Like Rue said - freezing the seed is the key, after that an ordinary airtight container is fine. Most importantly make sure you are buying clean seed in the first place. I find that Kaytee and some of the other large pet supply chain brands are really buggy - the only time I've had a problem was with those. Look in the smaller pet supply stores or bird specialty stores to get the good stuff and I bet you won't have a problem!