War against the Moth
Clothes moths certainly have expensive tastes. Further examination of the drawer my woolens live in revealed damage not only to the cashmere cardigan, but also an embroidered wool shawl and an angora cardigan. I think I can save them by embroidering the holes over with daisies or something. It might even be an improvement on the angora. The holes are always at the front, of course. I had thought that this was because egg-laying moths home in on tiny, invisible particles of food on the wool, which is why you should always have stuff cleaned or washed before putting it away, but I had done that and the bloody things still got devoured. They don't seem to like mohair, which is a good thing.
Since my dissertation was on museum pest control, and clothes moths are a major problem there, I do know a lot (theoretically) about controlling them. The best method used to be a product called Vapona, which was a small tablet of yellow plastic impregnated with a very effective residual insecticide, with little or no human toxicity and hardly any smell. Vapona was withdrawn from sale about 8 years ago (apparently because if a human being was dim-witted enough to eat one they might develop cancer). This caused mass panic and stock-piling by people responsible for storing clothes and taxidermy collections and desperate appeals for its sale to be restricted to museums. None was available on eBay when I looked; there were plenty of cedar balls and so forth, that smell nice, and have some repellent effect on moths but don't actually kill them, alas.
The best I could come up with was a pheromone-baited trap system, much more expensive than Vapona, and I only hope it works. Sticky strips are baited with artificial version of the pheromone the female moths use to attract the males, so the little bastards will at least suffer the pangs of unrequited lust before they die. *evil laugh* Everything else has been cleared from the drawer, and sent for dry-cleaning, where relevant.
Since my dissertation was on museum pest control, and clothes moths are a major problem there, I do know a lot (theoretically) about controlling them. The best method used to be a product called Vapona, which was a small tablet of yellow plastic impregnated with a very effective residual insecticide, with little or no human toxicity and hardly any smell. Vapona was withdrawn from sale about 8 years ago (apparently because if a human being was dim-witted enough to eat one they might develop cancer). This caused mass panic and stock-piling by people responsible for storing clothes and taxidermy collections and desperate appeals for its sale to be restricted to museums. None was available on eBay when I looked; there were plenty of cedar balls and so forth, that smell nice, and have some repellent effect on moths but don't actually kill them, alas.
The best I could come up with was a pheromone-baited trap system, much more expensive than Vapona, and I only hope it works. Sticky strips are baited with artificial version of the pheromone the female moths use to attract the males, so the little bastards will at least suffer the pangs of unrequited lust before they die. *evil laugh* Everything else has been cleared from the drawer, and sent for dry-cleaning, where relevant.