The London Lounge

I took advantage of a flash of bad weather

Dear Screamin,

very nice!

Actually, I regretted not being able doing as you - all my winter stuff went to the cleaners and storage this Monday. So I'm enjoying the wrinkled virtues of linen

Cheers, David

We have just hit that moment here. 50F no longer chills, it just postpones the warmth of the afternoon. Sadly, I am fussing under a huge deadline. To make it even weirder, the winter was so warm that what I did bring out of storage last fall often didn't get much wear. So to the cleaners, or a few days on dry ice to kill the moths? Decisions...


Luckily, I had fittings this week for a summer suit and blazer. My preferred source for SB is in a nice groove.

Concordia wrote:We have just hit that moment here. 50F no longer chills, it just postpones the warmth of the afternoon. Sadly, I am fussing under a huge deadline. To make it even weirder, the winter was so warm that what I did bring out of storage last fall often didn't get much wear. So to the cleaners, or a few days on dry ice to kill the moths? Decisions...


Luckily, I had fittings this week for a summer suit and blazer. My preferred source for SB is in a nice groove.

Dry ice? Would you care to elaborate on your technique?

Still working on it, but dry ice suffocates moths in all stages of life. Whether that means a big ice chest with a small box of ice on one end, or a medium chest turned loose on a whole closet with the door taped shut will depend on the size of the task.

andy57 wrote:
Dry ice? Would you care to elaborate on your technique?

Gentlemen,

some sources, one popular and hands on:

Chill out
For delicate fabrics, silks and wools, place in a bag in the freezer for at least 12 hours to kill off any pests.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/artic ... pests.html

Some more:
At the other temperature extreme, freezing can also kill moths if it is done properly. Apparently it is not the cold temperature alone which is fatal but the sudden change from cold to hot to cold again. Best results occur when articles are kept at 18˚ F for several days, then suddenly exposed to 50˚ F for a short time, then placed back at 18˚ again. At this point they can be held permanently at 40˚. Articles small enough to be bagged can be moved in and out of a bin-type freezer. You may want to warn your houseguests that there is a sweater in the freezer before they find it themselves! In cold climates objects too large to place in a freezer can be put outside in the winter to achieve the same effect.
http://www.watoxics.org/healthy-living/ ... thingmoths

Freezing and Heating
You can also control clothes moths by heating the infested item in an oven for at least 30 minutes at temperatures higher than 120°F, enclosing the item in a plastic bag and placing it in a freezer for several days at temperatures lower than 18°F, or fumigating the item with dry ice. Before using any of these methods, consider if cold or heat will damage the fabric.
http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7435.html

Cheers, David

Interesting!
Didn't know the frigidaire (or oven) trick

If I buy pre-owned(!) knitwear, I will place it in a bag and freeze it for several days, this trick I already knew. It's the use of dry ice that intrigued me. I assumed the application was to reduce the temperature, but Concordia's post indicates that it's really about oxygen-denial and suffocation of unwelcome organisms.

Which has gotten me to thinking about other ways to suffocate moths and their destructive larvae.

Concordia wrote: ..., the winter was so warm that what I did bring out of storage last fall often didn't get much wear....

Same here.
But -on the other hand- my usual May 15th deadline for changing my wardrobe into Spring/Summer mode (and turning on the air conditioned at home) will have to be postponed this year.