Moths in the stash... and the cupboard... and the ugg boots

I had a friend ask me what to do about moths:

The little green sweater I have on here has been eaten by moths. Just about everything in our house that’s woollen has. It’s really getting out of control. At the moment only things that have been on or near the floor, like clothes in bags in the wardrobe or under the bed and uggboots and slippers so I think they were in the house when we came here, not brought in. I noticed a couple of holes in a woollen skivi last year but just thought I had snagged it on something. That must have been when it started and they’ve reproduced a lot over summer. It’s terrible. I had a beautiful little woollen bag that was made for me by my Japanese grandmother when I stayed there for two weeks back in 2002 and they ate through it completely! Normally moths seem to pop in, have a bit of a munch and then disappear and you find the evidence of them a few months later. This time they were crawling all over it and on the floor where it was sitting! They ate holes in the first jumper I ever knitted too. Anyway…this is my long winded way of asking if you have any tips for getting rid of moths. I kind of want to avoid moth balls cause they’re horribly toxic and Myles is getting into everything. They seem to be everywhere though and spreading so fast. I’ve never seen anything like it. They swarm! They seem to prefer wool over cotton and silk at the moment but I figure it wont take them long. The thought of going through everything and discovering all the things they may or may not have eaten is a little depressing. Oh I don’t even like to think about my poor wool stash!

And I replied:

The moths sound terrible! The non-chemical ways I can think is to get everything you can find that is woolly, and put it in dark plastic garbage bags, and leave them in the sun for a week or so. Leave it outside in fact as the alternating cold and heat will kill them. Little things can go into the freezer though. It will take a week to kill them. Bin anything that has been obviously eaten though.

Then you'll need to use pyrethrin (hardware store - organic, derived from chrysanthamums) to clean the house of them. You can also get pyrethrin traps (pantry moth traps) to get them. Everything then needs to be stored in airtight containers.

Moths tend to go for wool that is not scrupulously clean, such as ugg boots. Anything that isn't eaten should be cleaned thoroughly - wool wash, dried in the sun, and then stored in airtight containers with cloves, lavender, camphor and/or eucalyptus (essential oil on a piece of cotton taped in the top of the container, or on wood beads done the same way, with bay leaves sprinkled through as well).

It's a HUGE pain in the bum to get rid of them. I had this happen to me in Sydney because my pantry was infested and they also got into my stash and my coats. But I'm really sensitive to chemicals so couldn't dry clean and exterminate with chemicals. But you will have to check your stash...

So what are your suggestions? Anything else I've missed?

Recent FOs

I'm knitting a square shawl, have just finished Sabrina, and finished a triangle shawl the other day as well (it's a triangle, just badly blocked).

The square shawl is being knit out of this, which Zaria found fascinating before it was wound into two balls:



And I FINALLY finished my Rogue:

Isn't it gorgeous?

What's on the needles

Yes I appreciate that this blog isn't quite the same without pics and I am working to remedy that. You see, when we moved in here, there was no phoneline connected to the house, as it is a Brand New House. We contacted Telstra to arrange this. Telstra send out a technician to assess whether there was cable from the house to the pole (there was) and whether there was a little box on the side of the house (yes, there was) and whether there was a line from the phone cable down the pole (yep, that too). He said no, there weren't, so sent out a contractor to do the cabling. Contractor came out and said yep, the cabling isn't done but I can't do it so sent out a subcontractor to install the box on the pole that wasn't there. Subcontractor came out and signed off on it being installed and therefore Telstra had to come back and do something. Each of these steps took 2 weeks and us waiting around a lot.

Telstra then said they'd send someone out. And then didn't. And then said that the contractor and subcontractor still had work to do before they could do what they had to do. Which wasn't the case. We got jack of this and filed a complaint with the TIO and got nasty with Telstra. EVENTUALLY we have had a phoneline installed and are FINALLY able to make phonecalls.

Now we're dealing with another company to try to get nakedDSL and it is turning into one of those things, again, because we don't know what's going on.

ANYWAY - the moral of the story is that we are not able to use the internet much and only 1 at a time and not able to upload big things, like pictures. Hence the picture-free blog atm.

I have photos to share! Cool ones of a wedding I went to recently, and things I'm knitting and have knit, and house-y type stuff and so on. I've been to a midwife retreat, a camp, Sydney, a volunteering day at a local childcare centre, and there are lots of photos to share.

Right now I'm knitting Rogue and have updates for this. Because of my finger it's having a break atm but I'm up to the hood and am halfway through it. I've used 2 skeins of Bendigo wool so far and it's interesting to see the changes in tension that my shoulder going from mediocre to bad to worse has caused. Because of this, the body is going to be VERY long and warm. The hood is also going to be HUGE. I am knitting it as fast as I can, and have a 2 year headstart on it over Kate but she is up to the same spot as me! Damn her and her fast mad knitting skills.

I also have a scarf on the needles, and another shawl. Photos, I promise, will come soon.

What to do with 2 skeins of sock yarn...

when you don't knit socks? You have a look at Simple Knits: 653 patterns to knit with 1-285 yards of yarn!

I have 384y of Knit Picks Memories (no longer made but linked to Ravelry) to use so will have to find something to do with it. Or trade it. For crafty favours.