Moth Alert!
Last year there were a number of newspaper articles about plagues of moths that was insinuating themselves into our drawers and wardrobes. At the end of 2008 I have to report that our ‘moth man’ is as active as ever. I was particularly distressed to find that one of my favourite cashmere scarves now resembled one of those string vests so popular in the 60′s. And it is not only clothes they attack.
A violinist friend of mine went to his violin case after a few days break to find that the horse hair on his violin bows now resembled a collection of spun sugar. Moth balls are now de rigeur alongside his other equipment.
Apparently moths often set up a colony in your wool carpet and will migrate from this to your clothes. There are a number of different treatments one can get, from impregnated cedar balls to the old fashioned napthelene moth balls, the smell of which used to hover in the air around one’s gramdparents.
One of the most effective treatments I have come across is something called a Demi-Diamond. It has a chemical, harmless to humans and pets, which gives off female moth pheremones which prove to be devastatingly irrisistable to the male. He ends up by coming to a sticky end on the adhesive pad to which is attached the small phial of attractant. After that the females pine away. One of my clients was alarmed to find that when she used them in her wardrobe, instead of the couple of moths she thought she had, a whole squadron had landed in the trap after only a couple of days.
Thanks for this useful piece of advice, Carol. I had no idea that moths were such a problem until a friend of mine recently told me about her moth infestation which had ruined several well-loved sweaters. Needless to say, I forwarded her your blog post as soon as I read it!
Angie, thanks. Another thing you have to bear in mind is that you must persist with a treatment long enough to break the reproductive cycle of the little blighters. This can sometimes take up to 6 months. Good luck, or good hunting!