moths...Oh the HORROR...the Horror

Munch Munch Munch....

Horrors...I unrolled a chuval to give its monthly vacuum and found moths, several of the flyng variety, having a picnic...oh I think I feel sick.

I don't think they originated with the rug I found them in. I suspect the culprit Trojan horse is a large-ish Ersari I bought on a whim that had a distinct odor of...Afghanistan or somewhere...unwashed. It arrived a few months ago and I simply parked next to the rug I found moths on/in/around...oh I think I feel sick. (I observed no larvae, and I didn't see any moths on the Ersari, but it was late and I didn't really try.)

On the other hand, maybe these monsters were lurking in a crevasse in my newly acquired un-flooded abode. I moved to this house only about 8 months ago. It is older, raised construction, but had been extensively renovated, painted, etc.

My whole "collection" might be at risk. I woke up three or four times last night thinking I heard clear sounds of munching and maniacal high-pitched laughter. Given that I have about 80 carpet items ranging from bags to 10x13 Heriz floor coverings, what do I do next? All suggestions appreciated.

Oh...I feel sick...

Jack Williams

Hi Jack

Adult moths don't eat rugs, moth larvae do that. Adult moths lay eggs, though, and they like dark places like the backs or unexposed parts of rugs for those events.

There's a product called Sla that many rug dealers carry; there are surely other sources as well (on line sellers, for example, who can be found through Google). It's a spray that you can put onto rugs (front and back) that kills moth larvae and leaves a residual that will kill newly hatched eggs for awhile. Some dealers apply it to every rug that arrives in their shop; I use it in my garage on every rug, before I bring it inside.

Kill the little SOBs!

Regards

Steve Price

Jack,

I'm sure that Ersari from Afghanistan has the necessary and usual measure of camel dung for dating purposes, but I don't know that it provides any moth protection as a bonus. Thus, you'll have to implement Steve's remedy. Beyond that, all the old dealers used to say the best preventative against moth was to move the rugs around as often as possible.

__________________
Rich Larkin

Moths

Jack,

When you first saw the first little fluttering wings 6 weeks ago, someone warned you to take immediate action. Moths won't wait...they have a short life span and feel the need to lay thousands of eggs in that lifespan.

From experience, camel dung won't help protect the wool. I'd recommend doing two things...I usually put the rugs I have out all into trunks with mothballs for 2 weeks about once every 2 years (and then rotate them when I put them back out on the floor). I vacuum each rug as I put them in the trunks. Sometimes to keep from moving heavy rugs downstairs, I'll buy those huge clear leaf sacks and put the rug into a sack with moth balls and close it with duct tape. Then vacuum the entire house and or have terminex come through.

Alternatively sunlight kills the larvae. If they haven't penetrated the floor boards of the house, consider moving the rugs out and putting them back side up in the sun.

Never heard of the spray Steve recommended but it sounds like a winner; I'm going to get some.

Gene

Death to Rug Eating Moths

Jack,

SLA also kills scorpions.

I haven't seen a single scorpion since I have been using the stuff!
(They don't live around here anyway)
I have had a couple/few moth attacks, too, over the years but no evidence of them since I started using SLA. I have seen a couple of moths once in a while even after using SLA, and I immediately drop whatever I am doing and chase them around the house like a screaming maniac until I clobber the little carpet-killers or I lose sight of them after bashing over the lamps, knocking down the vases, banging my knees and stubbing my toes on the furniture. Then I try to find out if they hatched on something in the house or just wandered in from the outside looking for an unguarded meal.
Sometimes I wonder if the rest of the household actually brings moths INTO the house just to watch the show.
What I used to do with a moth-infested piece was remove and wash the offending textile and bug-bomb the house.
New pieces, if small enough, go into the freezer for a couple of weeks or until I remember that I put them in there. If they are dirty, I will wash them in Orvus first, freeze them and then spray on the SLA. The freezer may not be cold enough to kill the eggs, but it doesn't hurt to quarantine them for a while.
I vacuum larger pieces and then spray on the SLA (outdoors).
This may seem like a lot of trouble, but it is either this, or the moths win and I no longer have a rug collection.

Steve, another advantage of being a Turkotek member is that you need to scrounge through your rugs now and again to find pieces to photograph or study, thereby moving them and checking for moths at the same time.


Patrick Weiler

Jack -

Steve is right SLA works, but it's going to take a lot of it to do the job your describe. There are a lot of internet sources.

http://www.kilianhardware.com/slamotconspr.html

You, MUST, be using it outside. It's not good to breathe at all.

An alternative for a job this size is to look for a place that rents freezer lockers. It's essential that the freezer lockers take temperature down to -4 F. and hold it there. That's what a regular chest freezer (not the one over your refrig) can do. (Such rental meat lockers are less frequent than they used to be). Something that would take the volume of pieces you have all at once.

If you can find such a place, rent it and then wrap your pieces individually in plastic and put them in the freezer.

Leave them in the freezer for a week (no opening the door).

Then take them out for a day or two to let them warm up to ordinary ambient temperature. (This wakes up any dormant moth larva that might have survived the first freezing.)

Then put them back in the freezer for another week.

Take them out and vacuum them.

They will be free of moths, but meanwhile you need to use SLA on baseboards of other places where moths may be in the house.

It's a lot of trouble but I think worth it. You could talk to Tom Cole whom I think has done this as a service sometimes for collectors with infestations.

Once you're free of moths freeze everything that you buy or acquire BEFORE you bring it into the house. Same freezing sequence. I bought my daughter a chest freezer precisely so that I have use of it for this purpose.

Good luck,

R. John Howe

Non-Toxic Moth Proofing Solution

Hello Everyone,

May I suggest an alternative to SLA and other toxic pesticides or insect sprays?

I have personally used a non-toxic solution for years, with great success, and I recommend it to all my clients. It is a solution of 1.0% Ammonium Silicofluoride and 99% Water. The name of the particular solution I use is Cary's Moth Proofing Solution, but it has appeared over the years under different names, as well.

You need a plastic spray bottle with a squeeze handle (power sprayers have been used in large commercial settings) and one of those adjustable nozzles that allows you to change the degree of spray from a hard stream to mist. The solution is applied to both the front and back (and the inside of bags) of any piece, taking care to add more to piled areas, sometimes working the product into the pile with a latex gloved hand, particularly if the pile is deep. I do one side at a time, letting it dry before addressing the other. I spray enough to make the wool feel wet, but not enough to saturate the piece. If the ground or surface outside the selvage or edge of the piece becomes wet and darkened with moisture, then you know you are applying enough.

My understanding of the way it works is that the moth larvae will not eat any wool that has received this invisible, microscopic coating of Ammonium Silicofluoride. I imagine it must be like trying to eat a raw spinach salad when the spinach leaves have not been adequately washed and they still hold grit and sand. Having had this dreadful culinary experience once in a restaurant, I must say I take a twisted kind of pleasure in thinking about creating it for newborn moths.

Thus, the treatment is not a poison and does not kill eggs or larvae; it just forces these critters to look for another place to dine. It is said that the treatment lasts until the piece is washed, and must be done again if a piece is cleaned.

There may be several dealers across the US who make this solution, but I get mine shipped (4 gallons in a box via UPS) from Joe and Araxi Bedzjian, at Simonian Oriental Rugs in San Mateo, CA. Joe is the past president of the Armenian Rug society and he and his wife Araxi are wonderful people. I know Turkotek's policy about mentioning dealers, but in the universal interest among rug lovers to prevent moth damage, I suspect it might be ok to provide their name as a source.

I see no negative impact on the wool, and I've never had mothing on any pieces I have treated. The only downside is that if you are spraying a large piece, or multiple pieces, your spray hands and forearms can get very tired. It can feel like a tedious task, but the outcome, at least in my experience, is quite good.

Kind Regards,

Ed Krayer

Correct spelling of Bezdjian

My apologies for spelling Joe and Araxi Bezdjian's last name incorrectly in my last post. In my haste, I mistakenly reversed the d and z in their surname. The correct spelling is BEZDJIAN. Perhaps I should find an Armenian spell-check program!

Ed Krayer

Hi Ed

Thanks - that sounds like a good method. No problem mentioning the source. In fact, we have no objections to mentioning sources of anything that is more or less a commodity - books, moth murdering devices, etc.

Regards

Steve Price

Arrrrrrggggggh!

G'day all,

My rugs live or have lived in environments from semi to tropical and highland desert and have been exposed to all the variety of nasty critters which God hath put upon us!

Myself, I live or have lived in not only wooly dust but all the other variety of mining dusts you can imagine, and my rugs have had to put up with that as well.

Some sort of poison has often been far too close to my environment, including 245t in all its forms - Im not quite convinced that I myself may not later turn into some sort of wooly dust drug rug, considering the environments Ive lived near.

AND, my home has had to be gassed with other noxious fumes to eradicate or prevent the depredations of one sort or another of nasty beasties.

For all this dangerous happenstance to me and my rugs, my clever and fascinating mother always recommend, in addition to the above which she loathed, was the use of FEATHERS!

In my childhood years our homes were always filled with plumes of feather of one sort or another, many, many of them and as a consequense my homes always have a vast collection of feathers gathers from hither and thither. I especially crow when I find one of the feathers from the eagle or hawk or owl species of bird, this SURE to be a protectant against infestation

Apparently the moths and other wool munching irritants are attracted to something in the feathers, the oils of something or other, anyway something always seems to munch its way thru them, requiring replacement every so often of the contents of the bunches.

So for safety sake, FEATHERS IT IS!

My recommendation,
Marty.

Marty -

I have heard your mother's suggestion before.

It always stuck me as quaint. One does not actually get rid of the moths at all, one merely provides them with something (the feathers) that they prefer to wool.

This seems to me a rather tenuous solution and am not exactly sure that they might not prefer some species of nice felt (I have a piece with lots of it) to the feathers.

I vote for actually killing the moth critters of every form and stage.

Jack -

Notice that Ed recommends actually "wetting" the wool with the solution he advises. If you read the SLA instructions that's what they recommend with regard to their product as well and is why it likely will take a lot of SLA to deal with the general infestation you describe.

Regards,

R. John Howe

Hi John,

Come on! Marty's method is far more sporting. Feathers! Fantastic!

__________________
Rich Larkin

quote:

---

Originally posted by Richard Larkin
Hi John,

Come on! Marty's method is far more sporting. Feathers! Fantastic!

---

What a thoroughly unpleasant subject Jack (necessary of course:))

Thanks John, you have been the first to acknowledge my mothers idea is not just feathers in the wind...

And Rich, unfortunately, MY methods go far beyond that which my mother recommended - the feathers in my place are only an adjunct to my other, more horrendous treatments.

Like most, whenever the season comes around, like now, when I spot those mothly little ones getting around I freak, and begin the fervid examination under all the selvedges of all those pieces get attable, together with unrolling all those not currently in use etc etc.

Moths - pleeease! Some things are truely sent to try us....

Sadly,
Marty.

You have something there for sure Steve! And at the same time perhaps we have discovered just what DID happen to the others of those 'khalyk' pieces - havent come down to us because they were consumed by the moths munchies...

Marty.

Marty,

It warms my heart to imagine your dear sweet mother running all around the place distributing those feathers. And to yourself, good hunting!

Steve,

You're a genius.

__________________
Rich Larkin

Ah Rich, thanks - you are so kind!

Marty.

Hi Rich

Identifying the origins and meanings of tribal motifs is actually very easy once you get the hang of it.



Regards

Steve Price

Steve:

I do realize everybody's doing it. I didn't realize it was so easy.

__________________
Rich Larkin

Wet is a subjective condition.

Dear John,

I realized after my post that terms like "wet" would obviously mean different things to different people. Since I tried to explain my version of wet by describing the adjacent area around the piece that is sprayed, I decided to send these two images of a pile bag with tassels portion of half of a complete 19th c. Northwest Anatolian hebe. After spraying, I pulled the bag away from the redwood deck on which it rested and took another photograph so that the surrounding area could be compared to the dry areas underneath. Of course, the tassels would need to be massaged, and perhaps sprayed again, to insure that all the wool was treated.





Perhaps this provides a better idea of how much solution I apply when moth proofing my pieces.

Kind Regards,

Ed Krayer

G'day Ed,

Wish I could find 19th century weavings in that condition! And also agree that looks about like how much spray goes around my new aquisitions after a going over.

Ive been a little concerned about how honest to be with my own mothproofing concoction, however here it is -

I stew rosemary, basil, lavender and, and oh gosh can I admit it? - garlic! - for a couple of hours, strain and mix the residue with metholated spirits and spray merrily over my otherwise sometimes 'country stinky' pieces.

This mix of mine is a wonderful deterrent, nothing (nor anyone) is willing to approach my new items for some time - BUT I RECKON IT WORKS!!

Ashamedly,
Marty.

vee haf ow leetle vays, ya....heh heh heh heh HAHAeee.

They will die, they will all die. Thanks to all for the advice. John, I am looking to find a rental deep freeze locker in New Orleans...no luck so far... But, in the meantime.....

I've ordered 12 cans of SLA off the internet. I could not find it locally in New Orleans, but got a deal on line.

I...er... I have a leetle confession...er [heh heh...snort] I know I haven't been quite "right" since the Katrina flood...and I try to control it...(I call it my "sling blade", yes I do)...[heh heh gulp, smack].... But...[pant pant]...I just get this...[snort, gulp, drool]..heh heh...kinda - I don't know - a fun feeling or something warm-like [gurggle sniff sniff]... as I imagine whole moth families of the little bas***ds twisting in agony [mmmmnaff! heh heh pant drool pant]... as the bursts of chemicals hits their moth [may they rot in hades] nervous systems and their moth bodies start to pile up...au revoir gophfer[heh heh....Heh Heh ... HAH HAH HAH hee hee HAHA aaAHEEEHHEE.. HAHEHA... GURGLEHAHeee...k...eee .k.. eee...k].

Ed, I appreciate your advice and will try to get some of the environmentally friendly stuff as soon as I locate a source, especially if it seems to be a permenent. But since New Orleans is already ground zero for chemical pollution, I'll opt for the SLA now.

Honestly, given that "they're here," like Al Quaida cells, I would prefer a body count to deterence or diversion. Actually, the feathers might be a good early warning system...like a canary in a cage down in the mines.

It looks as if the Ersari was/is the source. Those d**n Turkmen...not content with enslaving, looting, raiding half the world, now they use insect warfare on my poor innocent pastoral, peaceful, wouldn't hurt a soul, gentle and pacific, Baluch!

Regards, Jack

fear strikes

Having taken off a few weeks to work at my so-called part time job and at being a decent wife and mother, I return to the discussion forums in what may be the nick of time. Just yesterday I received a rug that has moth damage -- and, like an idiot, I never even stopped to think about treating rugs for moths before welcoming them into our home. So far, (touch wood, meaning my head) we haven't had an infestation.

And I don't even know what moths or their eggs or larvae look like? Is any of that stuff visible? What do I need to be on the lookout for? Should I also be keeping an eye out for crickets or their various stages of life cycle? I've heard that they like to chomp on rugs, too.

Janet -

I would not trust eye inspection.

Immediately isolate (I mean seal it air tight in plastic or get it out of the house, into a garage or something).

Then order some SLA (lots of internet sources) and when it comes, spray the piece thoroughly before reintroducing it into the house.

Rule: If you see a moth flying it's likely a bit late. There are probably lots more about in larva stage. If you see a moth flying, I would take measures that assume all of your pieces are potentially infested.

That's often not fun, but you can get advice about going about it in the responses above, since that is the situation Jack Williams thinks he may be dealing with.

Regards,

R. John Howe

MOTH=...Mother Of The Hated...

yes I am....I find more flyers in other rooms every day. Fortunately my sla arrived yesterday...and I've laid in a store of large leaf plastic bags, sealing tap, moth balls. I am

1. vacuuming each rug and spraying sla front and back,

2. then putting two or three smaller folded rugs with moth balls in each bag and sealing them (It will probably take me about a week to complete the process for all my rug and wool items).

3. then I will leave them for three or four weeks...and

4. use the sla to thouroughly spray the house (all hardwood floors) crevices, closets, baseboard.

It will be a bare three weeks with board floors and rug pads soaked in sla looking at me...but.... I'll clean the place up. I hope this works.

best of luck.

Jack

Thanks John. For the moment, the rug is sealed in a leaf bag and is in the basement freezer. I'll go out tomorrow and buy mothballs, then see about ordering some SLA. Do moth balls actually kill moths in their various stages of life, or do they only keep them at bay?

Jack, your description of other precautions is very eye-opening, including what you said about vacuuming your rugs monthly. I definitely am not caring for them properly. That said, I do have our two old carpets in leaf bags with moth balls, and most of the others get walked on a lot. But I do have a stack of our best rugs that doesn't get disturbed much at all.

One more question (again): Are moth larvae and eggs visible? Is there anything I can look for on the rugs, besides holes?

Janet -

You ask:

"...Are moth larvae and eggs visible? Is there anything I can look for on the rugs, besides holes?..."

Me:

You asked this before and I don't recommend that you attempt to determine infestation in this way.

I saw a presentation by a professional conservator in California once in which he showed (under magnification) moth (and other such pests) eggs and larva in rugs. But it's just too difficult to see and too easy to miss, so I'd give that up.

If you suspect infestation of any piece deal with it in the way you have with the one you know is infested.

Regards,

R. John Howe

In old japanese movies, I root against Mothra

I agree with John.

However, about 30 years ago I was working and in college finishing my MS. My brother had done me a favor and sold me my first Baluchis for my apartment "at an incredible low price...cost really." They included a complete old saddlebag, a complete old Balsht, and a old prayer rug...all with more or less the same design...the "tic-tac-toe" device. I thought they were great...(only later did i realize......nahh...actually he gave them to me saying..."the first one is free").

I came home one day and it seemed like the saddlebag tacked on the wall was moving. I investigated...and it was covered with incredibly ugly moving wormmie type thingies some with wings.... Keep in mind that I was a combat Viet vet, ex-special forces, hardened to hardship, inured to dirt, filth, bugs, vermin, indifferent to human and animal suffering having witnessed a fair amount of "stuff,"... yet I almost did the ole' technicolor yawn at that sight of that moving mass of worm-thingies.

I still have the prayer rug and the balsht...but the saddle bag fell to pieces in front of my very eyes. I'm not sure if it was the larvae, or the effect of the shear volume of chemical warfare unleashed on that bag....a volume that probably would have drowned the larvae.... I rarely have bad dreams...but if i do, it sometimes seems to include a wiggling mass of small wormies.....

Oh...I am unfortunately not as thorough a caretaker as I should be. The single life, kids in college, work, puppy, flood aftermath which will never be over, new old-house,...insures a perpetual punch list of things to do. This time I was fortunate to discover the vermin when I did. The vacuuming was not exactly a scheduled event...more like I randomly happened to be in the proximity of that rolled up chuval with vacuum in hand.

I wish I had a freezer...

Jack

Jack -

It sounds like you have a plan, but if you really still want to investigate freezing, talk to some folks in the meat/fish business.

Often there are commercial meat locker folks who have space available to rent (that might especially be the case in New Orleans at the moment in the Katrina aftermath).

I think meat/fish people might point you to rentable freezer space of the size you need.

Just a thought,

R. John Howe

The freezer in which I put the offending rug is not industrial strength, but it is a unit exclusively dedicated to freezing -- no refrigerator involved. It's where my husband keeps film (which is to say that he does shoot digital, but he also still shoots black and white on film). And John, I won't count on seeing the critters, I'll just assume that I have an infestation in the works, and spread around the chemical.

Jack, I enjoyed your descriptions of combat with all manner of enemy. Not that Vietnam would have been a party, but it sounds as though you've channelled your skills in a worthwhile direction.

As for feathers, which Marty brought up: thankfully the feather collection that my younger son and I share is kept in plastic bags and in display boxes. We wash them well after collecting them (and I know it's illegal to pick up wild bird feathers, but it's a risk we take), fluff them out and enjoy the different colors, patterns, textures, sizes, and shapes. Kind of like the things I enjoy in rugs.

Janet Tyson

Hi

Please send me an email letting me know who you are, and I'll edit your post to incldue your name. Also, please overwrite the word "unregistered" in the user name field with your name when you post.

Thanks.

Steve Price

I think the "unregistered" post above is by Janet Tyson.

Janet -

The critical thing about freezing is that the freezer must be able to achieve and hold a temperature of at least -4 degree F.

Most chest-type freezers can do that.

Also the freezer must not be opened and closed during the time the rugs are in it (I usually leave them for about a week).

And, as I indicated above, once the first period of freezing has been completed one needs to take the pieces out of the freezer and let them warm up to room temperature for a couple of days. This awakens any larvae that might have escaped the first freezing.

Then put the pieces back into the freezer for a second period equal to the first.

Detailed instructions are on the TM web site.

Regards,

R. John Howe

T'was I who posted without registering. Although I would swear (almost) that I did log in. So, I will need to leave a thermometer in the freezer and a note on the door to not open until Oct. 11.

Adding some letters at the end of "Moth."

Good morning fellow moth haters.

Here are some pictures of the primary culprit.



A good short summary of data and treatment methods is found on the Univ. of California site below:
http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7435.html

Quick summary of clothes moth characteristics:

Moth - ¼ inch long at rest;
larvae - ¼ - ½ inch long
Appearance - golden reddish; golden hairs on top of head; weak flyer-not attracted to light-found very close to infested items; flight pattern distinctive-tend to flutter rather than fly in direct steady manner.

Here is a quick summary of methods of control

• Locate the source of infestation. Check corners, under furniture that has not been moved for a long time, behind baseboards, etc.

• Clean up or eliminate the source of infestation. Your vacuum cleaner is often your best pest management tool. Pay close attention to areas where lint accumulates (corners, baseboards, shelves, etc.). Be sure to dispose of the contents of the vacuum cleaner bag after you clean. Clean or dispose of infested clothing, cloth, blankets and other fabrics. Freeze-treat small items such as ornaments and fur toys by placing them in the home freezer for a week. Periodic brushing and sunning of stored fabrics is helpful in prevention and control.

• Store fabrics that contain wool or other animal fibers only after they have been brushed and cleaned. Storage in tightly sealed chests or storage closets is recommended. Cedar chests provide protection only for fabrics that are initially free from carpet beetles and clothes moths. Moth crystals, flakes or balls can be used as noted below.

• Treat with a recommended insecticide. However, chemical treatment will not be effective if proper cleaning is not done first.

Now a final and distinctly unpleasant task. It has come to my attention that there is a cult that iconizes the so called, “MOTHRA” creature, the leader of the armies of "mothdom" and the sworn enemy of rugs, not to mention Godzilla. I suppose this was to be expected in this world where admiration of evil is so common. Still, I am a little amazed.

Below are pictures of totems of this cult, and some of the [shudder] horrible characteristics of “MOTHRA.”



Here are some of the reported information and details about “MOTHRA”. The information is contradictory and not fully confirmed.

Length 180 Meters (Larva, 1961); 135 Meters (Adult, 1961)

Weight: 20,000 Tons (Larva, 1961); 15,000 Tons (Adult, 1961)

Wingspan: 250 Meters (1961)

Air Speed: Mach 3 (1961)

Special Weapons:
• Gives Off Poisonous Yellow Dust
• Emits Rays From Antennae
• Discharges Bolts Of Lightning From Wings
• Can block Godzilla's radioactive breath ray
• Telepathic

Film Appearances:
Mothra (1961)
Godzilla Vs. Mothra (1964)
Ghidrah, The Three-Headed Monster (1964)
Godzilla Vs. The Sea Monster (1966)
Destroy All Monsters (1968)
Godzilla Vs. Mothra (1992)
Godzilla Vs. SpaceGodzilla (1994)

Origin:
Mothra's origin is not well known. She was the guardian of an ancient race of tiny humanoids named the Cosmos who lived on earth. The Cosmos civilization became very advanced but the Zen of Earth Lifeforce created Battra to kill Mothra and wipe out the Cosmos. Although Mothra defeated Battra, the civilization of the Cosmos still crumbled and Mothra lay dormant for many years. In 1992 she hatches from an egg when Godzilla and Battra threaten Japan.

Note:
Mothra maintains a close telepathic contact with two small fairies. Its behavior patterns and communication abilities indicate an above average level of intelligence.

Final footnote: I sometimes despair over the modern craziness. I discoverd this flyer from a film that AGAIN seems to make these terrible insects into some kind of modern day heros. This madness must stop...moths are the enemies of mankind!!!!



Regards, Jack

Jack, this is Janet (consciously unregistered). The results of your research are amazing! I have a whole new perspective on moths: they are not part of nature, as my younger son would have, but a force of evil! Although, there is a Godzilla 50th anniversary movie (I think from 2005), in which Mothra attempts to come to the aid of Godzilla and the Earth and is martyred for the sake of both.

Hi Janet

Would you be good enough to send me an email (sprice@vcu.edu) telling me why it's OK for you to consciously not overwrite "unregistered" with your name? I'm pretty tolerant of people doing it by mistake, but am at a loss to see why it should be OK to do it consciously and then announce the fact.

Thanks.

Steve Price

An offer you can't (shouldn't) refuse?

Hi all,

The freezing and thawing method that seems to be favoured by many has encouraged me to make an important offer to all collectors of antique rugs. For a limited time only I am willing to provide a natural "de-mothing" service for antique rugs on the Canadian prairies. I should provide the conditions up front:

1) I reserve the right to be selective about which rugs I accept for the treatment, so please send pictures of your candidate rugs.

2) The freezing/thawing cycle in my native region is annual, so for the "fully natural" treatment (i.e. outdoors), you will need to leave the rugs with me for at least 2 years.

On the positive side, the treatment is FREE (you pay shipping).



James.

Hi James,

You forgot to mention that two years is minimum, provided the temperature remains below -4 degrees for the full two years. No telling when they will be safe for return.

__________________
Rich Larkin

Yes, I agree with Richard.

I think Canada is disqualified as a place where the "freezing-thawing-freezing" sequence can be applied using natural weather conditions.

I have always thought that Canada specialized in freezing and that the Canadian "spring" was merely a brief period (I think they have this in northern Russia as well) when the snow turns green.

Regards,

R. John Howe

Doesn't sharper image sell some sonic moth ray?

Hi Dan

I don't know that one specifically, but such devices are usually repellants, not insecticides. If that one would work at all, the best you could hope for would probably be to reduce the number of adults in an area. Eggs would still hatch, larvae would still happily convert your rugs to moth frass.

I guess you could put one of these things into a deep freeze with the rugs, thus giving yourself the feeling that you're really done everything that can be done about the problem.

Regards

Steve Price

Hi Rich and John...

Ha, ha, ha....

I've already got a million of them...

"Canada has 10 months of winter and 2 months of bad skating", is one of my personal favourites.

I lived in Baltimore for almost 3 years, and I have to say I prefer a Canadian prairie winter to a Washington-Baltimore summer. Did you ever notice how Caucasians all lose any skin tan they have by the end of August in that area? Nobody spends time outside outside because of the heat and humidity.

I have experienced some pretty fierce weather in India, with about 52 C being about the hottest. But it was a "dry heat".

James.

Dry Heat?

James,

"I have experienced some pretty fierce weather in India, with about 52 C being about the hottest. But it was a "dry heat".

Kind of like your sense of humor?

As for the question of being able to spot the pernicious predator, what I have noticed is a whitish-dusty, cobweb-looking smear about an inch or two in size. I believe that by this stage, the larvae are already hard at work reducing your investment faster than a bear market on your 401K fund.

The only reason carpet moths are still in existence is because I cannot decide if I should invent a way to eliminate the moths first or the malaria mosquito.

Patrick Weiler