I Saw A Moth! Advice?

This afternoon I opened my closet door and was looking for a pair of pants when a moth fluttered out. This was at ~ 4PM, so I kind of panicked…

I live in CA and don’t have air conditioning (old house) or window screens at this point. I usually open the windows at night, and the occasional moth will get inside. Usually I just “escort” them back out the window, or the dogs eat them. But I’ve never seen one inside during the day, and certainly not in my CLOSET!

I don’t have a lot of wool clothes, and I really don’t have much of a stash either. I have a wool/ acrylic store bought sweater in that closet, and 2 other wool sweaters that are in a drawer in the bedroom. I have a few wool scarves in a different room. My stash is in the closet where the moth was, and I have maybe 10 or 15 balls of yarn that have wool in them. They are all in a clear plastic rubbermaid type container. My closet isn’t even dark - it has a window! I didn’t find any other moths, or any damage to the yarn or sweater (or any eggs or cocoons or crap, EEW!).

I pulled all the wool and wool blend yarn in the stash out and put it in my freezer. I looked at the 3 sweaters and they looked okay… What else should I do? I guess I kind of thought moths were something to worry about if you have a lot of old clothes in a musty closet or attic. I toss my stash regularly and I actually keep the closet pretty clean.

The irony of it all is that yesterday I was reading Yarn Harlot: Secret Life of A Knitter, and she talks about finding moths in her house/ stash. I thought smugly, “Glad I don’t have that much stash, certainly not some wool WIP I haven’t seen in 5 years in a bag somewhere. I don’t need to worry about that!” DOH! I jinxed myself!!!

Any advice would be appreciated. I wouldn’t mind sacrificing the Jaywalkers to a moth since we’re not on speaking terms right now, but I really want to protect the rest of my woolen things.

Not all moths are wool eaters - so I’m told. Try cedar oil on a paper towel or cloth. Got mine from a health food store . At $3.95 for a .5 oz bottle, is cheaper than buying cedar blocks.

Like you I found a few moths but no damage. One site I looked at said that moths are attracted to our skin residue on the fabric.

go to a store like home depot and get a block of cedar, drill a hole and tie a string to it so you can hang it in the closet. Once a month go and sand the block just a little bit to keep the cedar strong.

You can also put whole cloves in the pockets of your clothes as well.

I have heard (from folks on Ravelry) that they can get used to the smell–or at least learn to deal with it–if they are already there when you put the cedar in. You need to go through your wool things and check each thing carefully and then decide what to do about the moths. You might have a problem but you might not and maybe you can pick things off before they do any damage?

I went to a cottage recently and took some of my stash (it was a knitting weekend). There were tons of moths everywhere and I was freaking out thinking about what might happen to my yarn, so I put the yarn into a plastic bag and into the freezer for about a week. The cold kills any eggs you can’t see. I also put the yarn into Ziploc bags before I put it into my stash with the rest of my yarn.

OK, I am out of panic mode. Well…

For now, my yarn is still in the freezer. :slight_smile: I still see moths in the house here and there (at night), but I haven’t seen any that are near the closet since that one. Who knows, maybe it was just a plain old “nighttime” moth that got trapped in there. Nothing seems to have any damage.

I usually keep a scented soap (lavender and lemongrass) in the box with the yarn. Don’t know if it is officially moth repellant but it does smell quite strong (and good IMHO). I’m going to be more vigilant and see what happens…

I have moths in the closet as well as the house. the cats catch most of them but tey are still here (its an old house). they only damage cheap sheats for some reason, the expensive once they laeve alone, the catsv are slowly killing them off (im not stopping them, says the vegie tahts pro animals etc lol). yarn is un touched by moths, cats and kittens different matter though.

citrenalla i have heard does the same thing if you can buy it in america. i know in the uk you cant any more, but here in france you can

darned things

I use Irish Spring soap. I bought a 4 pack of the bars, and broke them into cubes. Then I put the bits of soap in with my yarn. I read it somewhere, and it seems to work!