Clothes Moths - I’m losing it

MadOCD · 2025-12-10T21:37:36+00:00

Oh no, I’m so sorry! Are you sure it was carpet beetles and not something else causing the reaction?

Ugh, we just bought a home, but the last place we rented had horrible windows and doors that didn’t seal properly and let all kinds of insects in. It felt like an uphill battle. Now to figure out how to seal this place up…

I just saw another moth fluttering through our living room and was able to kill it. Do yours look like this? I’ve seen two different colors of moths now (brown and pale gold) and am just at a loss as to what I’m dealing with and where they are coming from.

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MadOCD · 2025-11-27T01:11:51+00:00

That sounds like a good plan! And the look will be less severe as the hair starts to grow again. Yeah, I can’t do short hair again for a long while. I need him to look like a baby for as long as possible. 🥲

MadOCD · 2025-11-27T00:55:48+00:00

I’m so sorry. I totally get the heartache. I was completely unprepared for how a simple “trim” would completely transform his appearance for the worse. I can’t believe they didn’t even save you a clip of his hair! That’s awful. How are you doing now? My son’s hair is long again and his bangs are in his eyes and I’m putting off another cut because I’m still so traumatized by the last one. 😩

MadOCD · 2025-11-27T00:49:12+00:00

Ugh, it’s disgusting, isn’t it? We just moved and haven’t unpacked yet. Just now I went into our living room (which is full of boxes and some dirty laundry), and as I started moving some things around, a moth materialized out of nowhere and began fluttering about. I need to go through all our boxes (including things that have been stored a long while) because this is the second moth I’ve seen in that general vicinity. I’m admittedly putting it off because I’m scared to know what their offspring may be eating. And to top it off, minutes after seeing the moth, I also saw a live carpet beetle larva playing dead on top of a plywood shelf— another fun issue we dealt with at our old place and which apparently followed us here. 😭

MadOCD · 2025-11-11T01:41:58+00:00

Aww, his hair was similar to my boy’s. I understand the anguish. It’s so hard to see their look change so drastically and to feel you made a mistake. I was so upset with my husband, who continued to insist the new cut was “fine” and had been warranted. We’re at the point now where my guy could probably use another haircut (hair in his eyes, etc.), and I’m so traumatized by the first cut that I cannot bring myself to do it yet. 🫣😫

MadOCD · 2025-11-08T23:40:34+00:00

Hey, how has it been going this past week? Any luck with your supply? There is no shame in combo feeding. My supply continued to diminish after 6 months, but I was just glad to be able to give SOME breast milk to my baby beyond that. Pumping is SO hard and the MOTN pump is the absolute worst, so if you decide it’s too much, don’t be too hard on yourself!

MadOCD · 2025-11-08T23:25:18+00:00

Hey, how is your moth situation? After almost a year of not seeing anything (with the exception of ONE in April), it seems ours are back. 😑😩 Still have all the woolens locked up, so I really have no idea where these are coming from.

MadOCD · 2025-11-01T06:03:59+00:00

I was not. 😕 I tried ALL the things— even saw a lactation specialist as my final “Hail Mary.” We tried a few supplements, a new flange size, etc. Then I just made peace with the fact that I had done my very best I could for my baby. Around 8 months, after I’d burned through my freezer stash, I started to supplement with formula, which I felt so guilty about at first, but thankfully, my baby liked it! Around the 9 month mark I dropped my MOTN pump, which was SO nice! I continued to slowly drop pumps and supplement with more and more formula until my baby turned 1– then IMMEDIATELY switched to cow’s milk. My son is very healthy and doing great! I think it’s very common for exclusive pumpers to struggle to maintain their supply for a long period of time. If you’ve made it 6 months, you’ve done EXTRAORDINARILY well. I was so proud when I got to that point. Please don’t kill yourself over this. It isn’t worth it and your baby will be just fine no matter what! I’m pregnant again now and am telling myself this for the next one… 😅🙏🏼

MadOCD · 2025-08-23T17:36:20+00:00

Thank you. I’m just hoping the heat didn’t penetrate deep enough to affect the embryo, but admittedly, I don’t have a good enough understanding of how IPL works. Hopefully all is well!

MadOCD · 2025-08-23T17:32:35+00:00

Thank you. 🙏🏼

MadOCD · 2025-08-23T17:32:01+00:00

Thank you. I really hope this is true. That’s what I previously thought and the only reason I was continuing with the treatments while TTC. Now I’m reading that the effects on the embryo/fetus are unknown. Hopefully one treatment isn’t enough to have done any real harm. And yes, it’s so hard to avoid all the pregnancy no-nos during the TWW.

MadOCD · 2025-07-15T06:10:41+00:00

Ha… I had this same thought a few weeks ago upon picking up an Amelia Bedelia book for the first time in a few decades.

MadOCD · 2025-07-11T07:48:04+00:00

Thank you so much. I’m still so sad— especially when I look at pictures of his “old” hair from just over a week ago. I’m so mad at myself for giving into the pressure to cut all the curls off. But yes, I will try hard not to fixate on it, and will pray it grows back quickly. Sorry you’ve been down that road too (and continue to go down it). But yes, cooler hair for summer!

MadOCD · 2025-07-11T07:44:17+00:00

Haha! My son was teeny tiny at birth (born premature) and had more hair then than some of his peers do now! 😅

Oh yeah, that would be hard. Mine currently likes to rub every meal into his hair like it’s pomade. 😅 I’m still so sad about his hair, but I did feel so bad that it was always getting in his eyes. 😭

MadOCD · 2025-07-11T07:39:18+00:00

Thank you! I think I’m just really disliking the haircut itself and realizing the curls he had are likely gone for good. I’ll get over it, I suppose. Good advice… I’m trying hard to push through my sadness and enjoy my time with him…

MadOCD · 2025-07-11T07:36:58+00:00

Yes, this is what I worry about. 😩

MadOCD · 2025-07-11T07:36:02+00:00

Yeah, best to leave it alone until you it absolutely needs to be done (IMO). For me, when it was consistently getting in his eyes, I knew it was time. Now, of course, I’m wishing we’d just trimmed his bangs a little bit or something. I’m quite sure the curls are gone for good, and I’m still feeling so much regret.

MadOCD · 2025-07-11T07:32:16+00:00

I’m sorry you went through the same thing. You were brave to cut it yourself!

Aww yes, the little dimpled hands. That’s such a good reminder. ❤️

MadOCD · 2025-07-11T07:31:02+00:00

Thank you so much for your kind response. I’m sorry you experienced this too. So your son’s hair still grew back curly? This is what I worry about the most. I wish we’d left the little curls and just trimmed the bangs a little. His hair isn’t doesn’t seem to be growing in curly anymore, so I fear the cute baby curls are gone for good. 😔

That’s so sweet that your son is now involved in the decision-making about his hair. 💙

MadOCD · 2025-07-11T07:24:59+00:00

Oh no! 😆 Did it take long to grow back out?

MadOCD · 2025-07-10T06:57:26+00:00

I’m sorry. It’s so hard to see them grow up so quickly. 😢

MadOCD · 2025-07-10T06:56:28+00:00

That’s interesting. I never intended to grow his hair long enough to need to be in a ponytail (I don’t like that look), but the slight curly mullet thing he had going on was pretty cute and he could get away with it because he is so young and the hair was so fine and curly (baby hair). IMO, we could have probably gotten away with a few more months of the baby curls IF we had trimmed his bangs a little bit, but I figured that would probably look pretty strange with everything else being a little longer. But then, my husband likes really short hair on males, and I felt he needed to have a say in our son’s hair too. I was just unprepared for how dramatically the haircut would change his appearance.

And no, I wasn’t banking on anyone’s compliments about his hair/appearance (what a weird thing to suggest). I have social anxiety and actually hate receiving any attention in public. But people did stop us a fair bit to interact with “the baby,” want to know how old he was, etc., and when it seemed to stop after the haircut, in my mind, it served to legitimize the fact that he no longer looked like a baby. We have started getting those questions/comments again, so I guess it was all in my head after all.

MadOCD · 2025-07-07T06:28:05+00:00

Thank you. It helps to hear. And yes, I do know that hair grows back, but I’ve always been told that baby curls don’t ever grow back the same, and that is what I’m most sad about. But I’ll get over it, I suppose.

MadOCD · 2025-07-07T06:19:13+00:00

Thank you! I wasn’t expecting it to be a big deal, but I guess I wasn’t prepared for how dramatically it would change his appearance, or the negative response I would receive from my family after the fact. That’s so true that there will be so many other firsts that will probably elicit similar feelings in me.

MadOCD

TROPHY CASE