Tiny Holes In Clothing

There are tiny holes showing up at the top of my blouse and t-shirts. Does anyone have an answer as to why? These were fairly new clothes.

By bettie jackson from Detroit, MI

Answers:

Tiny Holes In Clothing

You may have moths eating your clothes, or it may be that you need to separate your laundry loads into regular, delicate, etc., if you aren't already doing so. Also buttoning buttons, and zipping zippers when you wash may help too so fabrics don't snag. (04/12/2010)

By Jennifer

Tiny Holes In Clothing

It sounds like zippers in the washer to me. Delicate clothing should be washed separately. Even buttons that have sharp edges can do it. Watch what you put in the laundry and see if there might be a culprit there. Also your washer could have chipped places on the tub. (04/14/2010)

By Lilac

Tiny Holes In Clothing

I thought of something else. Do you have a cat? When cats jump up on your lap they sometimes snag clothes with their claws. (04/14/2010)

By Lilac

Tiny Holes In Clothing

I am having this same problem for the last 2 years, in fact last month I bought 4 new t-shirts, wore 2 of them once only to find holes in them after the first wash (nice front loaders).
I am inclined to think it is moth larvae. (I have put catchers in my closet and have caught small moths, but not continuously, just after I first put them in.)

Here is a post I found on a different site, I copied and pasted it because in my opinion it was the most helpful.
***********

I collect textiles and had a serious moth infestation a few months ago, which cost me thousands of dollars to deal with (in addition to what I needed to throw out). Here's what you need to know.

You may not see anything flying around. I discovered the problem when I found holes in a stored rug. I ultimately found a tribal cape that was infested.

Moths and beetles eat natural fibers and not just wool, although whatever was in my closet showed a real preference for goat hair. Any type of fur, silk, etc. are all at risk. Silverfish eat paper, etc.

The first step in dealing with an infestation is to clean out the closet, have "everything" dry cleaned or washed in hot water and have all holes/cracks in any sort of closet sealed. Vacuum and wash the closet thoroughly, then get an exterminator who specializes in this, like Orkin. They need to come every 3 months and are only a partial solution. You can monitor how things are going by buying traps and pheromone lures, unfortunately, you need different lures for each type of moth (there are two), etc.

and you need to put in new lures every couple of months. Pheromones will kill males, but the traps are more important for monitoring. If you have something that you can't clean, see if you can put it into the freezer, cranked up to high, for two weeks, then thaw it carefully.

Cedar is useless. What seems to have worked was the fact that cedar closets and chests are tightly sealed, but as for hangers, chips, blocks, spray, nope - read the literature.

Clean things before you store them for the summer. You'd be amazed at how much is known about moths dietary preferences, e.g., ring around the collar, different stains. Yuck!

If you store rugs, you can have them moth proofed, which will last for 3 years and costs about $25 per rug. A good rug dealer can do it; I had valuable antiques done.

Since this is a chronic concern in museums, there's a lot of good information on-line, including:

http://www.textilemuseum.org/care/brochures/pestbusters.htm
http://www.nature.nps.gov/biology/ipm/manual/museum.cfm
http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7436.html
http://missourifamilies.org/features/materialarticles/feature5.htm

And whatever you do, do NOT just ignore the holes and hope whatever you've got will go away.
Posted by Taureg on May 9th 2007 at 3:14pm (04/21/2010)

By tamra

Tiny Holes In Clothing

I have had the same problem for six years and I just figured it out! Do you have Cambria countertops? My countertop even though it had no rough edges turned out to be the culprit. If you do, call their customer service number and they will have someone come out and sand the edges. I just bought a new shirt last night and for the first time in six years I am not going to be completely paranoid when I wear it. I hope this helps! (04/30/2010)

By Megan

Tiny Holes In Clothing

This has been driving me nuts for over a year or at least my husband says I am.
Thanks to the person who had the tip on the counter top.
I just took a holey t-shirt and put it on backwards and pretended to do my normal or at least it is for women normal kitchen routine. I washed, rinsed, and prepared dinner. Moving at the speed most mothers do, it didn't take but a few minutes for the holes to appear in the stomach area of my shirt. The quartz countertop was the bug I though was in my closet and now I know why it didn't effective my husband's shirts. Ha ha he is only at the table eating. Thanks for the tip love going to my closet, bug free!
(06/01/2010)

By Wilma

Tiny Holes In Clothing

We own two Hondas, and I know without a doubt that their seat belts have been destroying our shirts. Took me a while to figure it out, but after wearing yet another brand new shirt to the grocery store, less than ten minutes away, I could see the rub marks from the seat belt rivet and the typical pattern of small holes within the rub marks. (It was my very first time wearing the shirt!)

I wrote a letter to Honda. Their customer service department called and basically accused me of lying about the damage and dollar amount of shirts that had been ruined. (Several years worth of nice clothes, x 2 people, can add up fast, especially when you have to keep replacing them due to holes in the front!) He said I was the only person who had ever complained, and because there wasn't a recall on the seat belt, they were not going to do anything about it. I try to remember now to put the seat belt under my shirt, but I forgot a few weeks ago and it happened again. I swore at myself and then at the very rude Honda guy who doesn't believe me. I wanted to hold it up in front of his face and yell, "See I'm not lying!" (12/29/2010)

By Stella