If you’re dealing with pantry moths and you’ve found mothballs in a cupboard or bought some based on a recommendation, we want to give you some important information before you use them anywhere near your food storage. The short answer is yes, mothballs can kill moths — but no, you should not use them in a pantry, and here’s exactly why.
What Mothballs Actually Contain
Traditional mothballs contain either naphthalene or paradichlorobenzene, both of which are pesticides that work by releasing vapour toxic to insects in enclosed spaces. They are genuinely effective at killing moths and their larvae when used in a genuinely sealed environment at the right concentration. This is why they have a long history of use for protecting clothes in storage.
Why You Should Not Use Mothballs in a Food Pantry
Mothballs are registered pesticides specifically labelled for use in enclosed, sealed storage spaces containing clothing and fabric — not food. Using them in a food storage area introduces a genuine food contamination risk, since the same vapour that kills moths can also penetrate food packaging and leave a chemical taint in the food itself. The smell alone — the distinctive, persistent mothball odour — transferring to any food stored nearby is a clear practical indicator of the vapour contact that makes this an unsafe approach in a food storage context.
Beyond the direct contamination concern, many mothball products are specifically labelled “do not use near food” on their packaging, making their use in a pantry not just inadvisable but potentially a violation of the product’s own usage directions.
Do Mothballs Work on Pantry Moths Specifically?
In a truly sealed, enclosed space, mothballs do kill pantry moths as well as clothes moths — the active chemicals aren’t species-specific in the way pheromone traps are. However, most pantry cupboards aren’t sealed well enough to maintain the vapour concentration necessary for reliable killing, which means mothballs often underperform their reputation in real-world cupboard conditions while still producing enough vapour to pose a contamination risk to nearby food.
What to Use Instead
For a food pantry specifically, the methods that work effectively and safely are: pheromone traps as covered in our guide on the best pantry moth traps that actually work — these are safe around food and significantly more effective for pantry moths than mothballs in a real-world setting; freezing new dry goods as described in our guide on how to freeze food to kill pantry moth eggs; and thoroughly cleaning the pantry with vinegar as covered in our guide on cleaning a pantry after a moth infestation. Combined, these approaches solve the problem that mothballs would address in a food-unsafe way, without any of the contamination risk.
If You’ve Already Used Mothballs in Your Pantry
If mothballs have already been used in a pantry space, we’d recommend removing them immediately, removing all food from the space, wiping every surface thoroughly with hot soapy water, and airing the space completely with the door open before returning any food to the shelves. Any food stored directly adjacent to mothballs, particularly in packaging that isn’t hermetically sealed, should be discarded rather than consumed.
Our Honest Advice
Mothballs and pantry food storage do not belong together. The pest control efficacy of mothballs in a food pantry doesn’t justify the food safety risk they introduce, particularly when genuinely effective, food-safe alternatives are available and inexpensive. Save mothballs for sealed clothing storage boxes, which is what they’re designed and labelled for, and use pheromone traps and freezing for your food storage instead.