Moth damage on the increase

[Rif Brig.]

Hi everyone,

I read an article on the BBC's website last week about museums in England having problems with moth and carpet beetle damage. The report said that they are on the increase because a certain pesticide has been banned.

With this in mind, I was wondering what other collectors do to protect their collections from these pests.

Sorry if this has been talked about before, but I am new to this site.

Cheers, Mark

[ander11]

Hello Mark,

Welcome to the great war forum, the best thing to keep moths away is little blocks of cedar . I have them in every drawer upstairs, they hate the smell of cedar

I hope this helps

best regards

Ian

[centurion]

Hello Mark,

Welcome to the great war forum, the best thing to keep moths away is little blocks of cedar . I have them in every drawer upstairs, they hate the smell of cedar

I hope this helps

best regards

Ian

This may make your clothes smell nice but scientific trials have shown it makes little or no difference (and neither does lavender, camphor etc etc). Dry cleaning usually kills any moth lava and keeps the moth off for a while.* It's now possible to buy transparent vacuum sealing bags. Put the clothes in one of these and a small electric pump is used to take out the air. Any lava inside die and the moths can't get in to lay any more eggs.

* But beware CTC and similar can affect humans too

"Nobby Hall a young MoD

Cleaned his suit with CTC

Hung it in the mess to dry

His oppo lay asleep near by

And all night long the fumes arose

And drifted by his oppo's nose.

When the shakers voice was heard

One there was who never stirred.

The funeral was a grand affair

The RN Beaty rep was there.

Poor Nobby wept for days on end

To think he'd poisoned his best friend.

Now sailors all be warned by me

If you clean your suit with CTC

Always take the utmost care

To hang it in the open air

Or even better if you can

Hang it by a wardroom fan!"

Cyril Tawny

[squirrel]

Quote Centurian:"It's now possible to buy transparent vacuum sealing bags. Put the clothes in one of these and a small electric pump is used to take out the air."

But it can take a couple of weeks or so for the larvae to die and they will continue to chomp their way through things during that time. Fumigation (under gas in a sealed area using CO2 takes about 2 - to 3 weeks). Dry cleaning or washing at 60c will kill adults, larvae and eggs of clothes moth, white shouldered house moth and varied carpet beetle which are the ones that do the damage.

Essentially, if these insects do attack, by the time you see the adults then they will have already laid their eggs.

All three species do however, prefer dark places so exposing things to light and regular brushing will go a long way to early detection. Maybe best just to keep one of those insecticide thingies that look like an air freshener where you store the items most likely to be attacked and check the items regularly.

[bill24chev]

my son recently got himself a Bearded Dragon she devoures any six legged creature and their lava like there is no tomorrow maybe setting one loose on your ollections might work wonders but be warned their waste product is a bit smelly.

happpy hunting

BILL

[centurion]

Quote Centurian:"It's now possible to buy transparent vacuum sealing bags. Put the clothes in one of these and a small electric pump is used to take out the air."

But it can take a couple of weeks or so for the larvae to die

Not if you achieve a hard enough vacuum

[scottmarchand]

Freezing is also very effective. Ideally below -30C for 10 days. At home you won't get those temps but 2 or three 7 day cycles alowing a thaw between each and a good vacuming of the seams has worked wonders. I had a moth break out a few years back and got it under control this way. I freeze all new inbound items and I also have a fabric steamer that I use to hit the seams and pockets. It is time consuming but so far so good. What you have to keep in mind is that the larvae are not actually after the wool, but the proteins from saaet and use that reamin on the garmet. The wool happens to be the carrier in most cases. SO clean is best and you shouldn't have much worry. Also don't store items in the plastic dry cleaner type bags, they cause a host of off gassing and micro climate issues and attract dust etc. About 80% of household dust is dead skin, i.e. protein and very attractive to pests. Keep humidity low too as they really enjoy dark undisturbed spaces in 40-65% Relative humidity and 20C temperatures.

Centurion: Thank you for making I point I alwasy get beaten up on by people who swear by it, cedar etc are essentially useless, make things smell nice but the concentrations of the actual oils you'd need to be effective (I have seen some articles that suggest a small measure of efficacy with cedar)are so astronomical that they are nigh practically unobtainable.

[squirrel]

The other option is to buy nothing that is made of natural fibres - problem solved.

[squirrel]

Not if you achieve a hard enough vacuum

Is that possible with: "a small electric pump is used to take out the air"?

[o j kirby]

Hello,

I use traditional moth-balls to keep moths off my WW1 uniforms. I keep them in the foot of old tights, and pin them in the wardrobe so that they do not come into contact with old fabfics. It seem to work. I have only had one minor moth visit, and that was one too many. Took a while to actually find a stockist for moth-balls, but eventually found them in an old-fashioned hardware shop.

Owain.

[paddyd]

Hi all

This is what i found about the moths

Deal with any clothes moth problems right away before they cause real damage.

Household moth killers may work against small numbers of moths but are unlikely to help if you have an established infestation.

If you have clothes moths then consider replacing and wool carpets with synthetic ones.

You can use lavender scented moth repellers in wardrobes to keep the moths away. However they are not fully effective – some moths don’t seem bothered about the scent!

Vacuum regularly to increase the chances of removing eggs. However even vacuuming won’t get rid of all of them as the eggs are usually stuck to the carpet fibres.

Try to avoid having dark undisturbed areas in your rooms. e.g. if you have lots of junk under your bed try to move it elsewhere or get rid of it. This will reduce the number of hiding spaces for them.

If the infestation is established then you may have to get a professional in. This could cost many hundreds of pounds. Try to get a guarantee that if they don’t get rid of the infestation for a certain length of time they will come back for free.If you are not going to be wearing certain clothes for a long time – e.g. your winter wardrobe – consider putting them into storage in sealed vacuumed packed bags.

[trajan]

I use traditional moth-balls to keep moths off my WW1 uniforms. ... Took a while to actually find a stockist for moth-balls, but eventually found them in an old-fashioned hardware shop. Owain.

Just one of the many obscure pleasures of living here is that moth balls are easily found - as are cloth moths... B**gg**s destroyed my old winter-weight Swedish Army sheepskin coat

Trajan