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Sticker of Common clothes moth
Bug card No. 0310 of 1,500

Common clothes moth

Tineola bisselliella
Eats: Nothing as a grown-upMothsHouses and farms6 legs

The common clothes moth is a tiny, pale golden moth with a little orange-red tuft of hair on its head. It likes dark wardrobes and cupboards. Its caterpillars are the ones that make holes in woolly jumpers.

Lives in
Europe and nearby lands, and now carried by people to other places like Australia, mostly indoors
Length
6 to 7 mm (0.24 to 0.28 in)
Wingspan
0.9 to 1.6 cm (0.35 to 0.63 in)
Top speed
about 8.9 km/h (5.5 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless to people. It cannot bite or sting, but its caterpillars can make holes in clothes.
What does it eat?
The grown-up moth does not eat at all. Its caterpillars eat wool, silk, fur, feathers and hair, and sometimes flour and biscuits.
For real!Photo of Common clothes moth
Picture by Olaf Leillinger. CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Common clothes moth about 7 mm long (0.28 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)

How wide are its wings?

Common clothes moth wings about 1.6 cm tip to tip (0.63 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)
small enough to sit on your fingernailcould fly across a whole football pitch in 42 secondsmoves 350 times its own body length every second

How big is Common clothes moth compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Its caterpillar is white with a brown head and lives inside a little tube made of silk.

2

It likes dark places. Unlike many other moths, it does not fly towards lamps.

3

It would rather scuttle along than fly, and some never fly at all.

4

Its caterpillars like dirty or sweaty clothes best, so clean clothes are safer.

5

A mother moth glues 30 to 200 eggs onto a surface.

you asked

Most asked questions about Common clothes moth

?Do clothes moths eat clothes?

Only the caterpillars do. The grown-up moths cannot eat at all.

?How big is a clothes moth?

Very small. Its wings are only 9 to 16 millimetres across.

?How can you keep clothes moths away?

Keep clothes clean, because the caterpillars like dirty and sweaty clothes best.

Myth buster

Myth: Clothes moths eat clothes.

Truth: Only the caterpillars do. The grown-up moths have no working mouth and do not eat at all.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Tineola bisselliella
Named by
Hummel, 1823
Group
Moths
Family
Tineidae
Classification
Insecta > Lepidoptera > Tineidae
Lives on
Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and Oceania
Also known as
Webbing clothes moth, Clothing moth

Where the facts come from

  1. Tineola bisselliella (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Olaf Leillinger. CC BY-SA 2.5, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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