Hubris leads to.................

[Macaroon]

I sleep in a normal 4'6" double bed, and in order to make room for and manage my clothing I have this fixed at just over 5' from the floor, with steps up into it and a clothes rail fixed to either end on which I hang my clothes; regularly used items on the right hand side and lesser worn items like suits and the sort of thing you need for family and formal occassions, weddings and funerals and all stops in between on the left hand side, which is nearest the window of the room. The room is at the back of the house and the house is in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by woodland and grass pasture. I'm somebody who has the bedroom window open for the vast majority of the time, only closing it in the severest of weather, and despite this I've never had the slightest problem with moths. I remember the lengths people went to to keep them away from woolen clothes and I remember well the damage some suffered to clothing because of them but I've never had any issues with the little critters and so have never taken any steps to limit any potential damage. I just get everythig out from there a few times a year, run the brush over the clothes whilst still on the hangers, and clean the whole place out thoroughly with vacuum cleaner and elbow grease; a great litle system which I'm used to and comfortable with................Except!!!

Yesterday afternoon was the day I decided it was time for a bit of a spruce up and I set to with some blues on loud and the mood high. All my suits are at least part wool, and as I got them out into the daylight I was completely gobsmacked to find every single one of them riddled with holes around the size of a tic-tac, and I mean riddled! Every item that contained wool had been destroyed; I think they must have had christmas dinner in there and then decided to stay until Spring......The end result was three suits, two waistcoats, three pairs of trousers and a very good wool overcoat down to the clothing skip in the hope that they might still be of use to those unfortunate souls who are the recipients (we hope) of these donated items.

I've sat and thought since then about what it would cost me to replace what I've lost and it's been a major shocker to me. I always paid top dollar for the best in the days when I got these clothes and there's just no way in the world I could go out and replace them without a fairly good lottery win

I'm still working out the moral of this little tale, but I know that in future I shall be treating the little buggers with a bit more circumspection!

 

[Zingmo]

Could you claim on your house insurance?

Z

 

[Toddy]

Horrible sleekit wee things. They destroy and make mockery of our careful making and preserving of good clothing.
My only phobia I have to admit.
You have my sincerest sympathies on this destruction; good clothing is expensive, and outlay on items like those isn't just financial, it takes time for fittings and purchases and all the footering around to find the right pieces to last and yet still be right for things like rites of passage.

There are suit bags now available that are both breathable and prevent moths getting into clothing.
The moths that do lay the eggs are wee thin flat things that creep and wriggle through the tiniest wee gaps though, so you have to make sure that they can't get in, even where the hanger goes through the cover. Rings of cedar wood are good for that little bit and they won't stink up your clothes the way that mothballs and naptha will.
I do like the Colibri sachets though, but tbh, unless you can totally stop the blighters having any access to the clothing, I'm always a little dubious.

What you could do it make sure your storage area is totally free of the moths and eggs and then net it with no-seeum mesh. They can eat their way into the mesh, but if you've a gap between the mesh 'cage' and the wool, it's less likely they will, and you can always treat the mesh with permithrin or a deet sub too
It pleases me no end to know the little blighters will be well and truly croaked by that.

atb,
M

 

[Macaroon]

I have been thinking that the no-see-um combined with permetherin might be the best way to go; one thing's for sure though, something will be done........

I'm not sure about the house insurance claim, do they not require that you took/take all resonable precautions? I certainly didn't do that, eh?

 

[Clouston98]

Aw crap, sorry to hear that! I've got these little cedar disks that go around the wire part of the hanger and I've not had any yet, but I'm a wool clad chap too so I'll keep a watch out not, shame about your stuff mate .

 

[bigbear]

My sympathies, happened to my best mate who is a London dweller, opened his sweater drawer one day in spring a couple of years ago to find Mothageddon.
the flip side is my long dead Auntie Nellie who would always give. My brother and I some chocolate when we called. It livd in her sideboard crawer and always tasted of mothballs...........

 

[DurhamBushcrafter]

Cedar oil spray is available from ebay, it smalls nice n 'manly' and a little squirt inside a suit bag keeps the little fluttery spawns of satan away.

 

[treadlightly]

I sympathise. I've battled them for years. You just have to make sure your wool is out of reach. Simple large plastic bags can do the trick as well as zip up bags and suitcases.

 

[Countryman]

Last year we had an bad infestation in our living room. They had feasted on the wool carpet.

Only solution was to upend all the furniture, spray it with moth killer, remove all the eggs with a vacuum cleaner then remove the carpet and skirting, spray the corners and replace with a wooden floor.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[samharber]

They're rampant in the ancient wool carpet throughout our house.
I swear they've even evolved to live on fleece and other synthetics, going off where I've found the caterpillars.
Little #@$£ers...

 

[Toddy]

No tolerance in a home for them. If you do tolerate you effectively encourage and when they've eaten your property to shreds they'll go looking for someone else's.

They're pretty easy to kill if you know where they are and are prepared to clean up after them properly.

Diligent use of modern hoovers have really cut back on their infestations thankfully.

M

 

[Macaroon]

I've hoovered everything in that room countless times over the past few days, and I'm going to use a combination of Permetherin spray, Cedar oil and the little Cedar discs that go on the hangars. I have a large number of Swannies, jumpers and other woolens that don't seem to have been touched, so I think I've caught this infestation in good time; I'm going to freeze the jumpers and other smallish things and store them in sealed bags for the Summer and then just hoover and spray until they can't survive. I'll also install good mesh properly outside the windows as I could never tolerate having windows closed, Winter or Summer.

Now I'm off into town to buy the Permetherin

 

[sandbender]

Sorry to hear about this, I roll most of my woollen stuff into bags and keep those in huge North Face bags, but even then I'm quite paranoid about moth damage.

Quite jealous of the high level bed though, always wanted one of them.

 

[Macaroon]

Well now, after the shock of all that in the OP, here's what I've done:

Sprayed the whole area, minus clothes, with a dedicated moth killer spray which is safe for home use and is, I'm fairly sure, Permetherin based; Ventilated thoroughly, I then sprayed all my wool containing clothes with a good pure Cedar oil, thinned for the sprayer with Isopropyl alcohol. I've read that the alcohol is quite good in itself at destroying some if not most of the pre-adult stages of the moths, and it evaporates leaving a good coating of oil all over the wooden surfaces, which I can smell but not feel. All this has been accompanied by much, very much, hoovering

I've also obtained about forty pieces of atlantic cedar about the size of a small cigarette pack and with a hole drilled in one end; these I've soaked in cedar oil for a few days inside a freezer bag, and am just about to hang them around all the clothes hangers and distribute them amongst the woolen stuff that doesn't get hung up, jumpers and swannies and suchlike.

All these bits and bobs cost about twenty quid, which seems quite cheap for the solution I hope it to be especially in the light of the cost of my losses. One thing about going this route, though - it's a good job I like the smell of the cedar oil, as it's now permeated the whole house but I guess that'll fade with time.

I hope this may be useful in whole or in part to anyone else out there who wants to prevent the " horrible sleekit wee things" as Mary so aptly names them

 

[Toddy]

I like the smell of cedar too
I generally mix it with bergamot which is a pleasant smell in itself.

I hope the horrible sleekit wee things never bother you again; just a damned shame that you had to have such losses before you found that they were likely to be a problem.

I asked before, but any of the archers who have port orford cedar shafts that have broken…..if you get a big pencil sharpener, or play with a decent knife to make feather sticks….those shavings in a loosely woven cloth bag (or in a bowl if you're sure you'll not coup it) will also help keep the moths away, and the scent is lovely They make good stuffing for fabric shoe shapers too.

I think that was £20 well spent Mac

M