With a moth infestation the first order of business is to kill any and all moth eggs. Besides airing out my closet and scrubbing the floor, I had to clean every moth infested sweater and coat. After an extensive search on the web, I came across a three dismal options for killing moth eggs: chemicals, freezing, and heat.
- I could take all of my woolen sweaters and coats to the dry cleaners. My thought – too expensive and chemicals – yuck!
- I could stuff all my sweaters in the freezer for a week. While the freezing method was often sited as an option, it was also debunked in many of the articles I found online. Most home freezers are not cold enough to kill the moth eggs, and my small freezer certainly isn’t big enough to hold all my sweaters and coats for over a week! My thought – impractical.
- The final option is death by heat. But could I wash all of my fine woolens in hot water at 120°F? The sweater labels and most websites said no, but I found one site that said YES.
Fuzzy Galore claimed that felted sweaters are the result of agitation not heat. They claimed that the best way to loosen soil and deep clean wool sweaters was with hot water, a gentle cleanser like dawn dish-washing liquid (no Woolite please), and ABSOLUTELY NO AGITATION, not even gentle swirling.
I was skeptical at first. So I decided to test the hot water washing method described on Fuzzy Galore on a couple of wool scarfs. They came out beautifully!
So began the long arduous process of hand washing every sweater in my bathtub. I filled the tub with the hottest water out of the tap, added a textile detergent, and then gently sank the sweaters into the hot water with a wooden spoon without agitating them.
After the water cooled I removed the sweaters, drained the tub and filled it again with super hot water. I soaked the sweaters a third time in cool water. It took 24 hours for each batch of sweaters.
After the washing process, I gently squeezed the water out. Let them drain on the edge of the tub overnight, and finally blocked them on a layer of blankets and towels for another 24 hours.
It was a lot of work, but all my sweaters came out very clean and soft. None of them felted. I don’t know if the hot water was hot enough to kill all the eggs. I sent my coats to the dry cleaners and I was lucky that I had stored all my wool fabrics in plastic containers. So far so good… but only time will tell.
In the meantime my battle with the moths continued…
Also consider that a closed car on a sunny day gets over 120F Not an option in the winter, but something to consider in the summer. I use this method to kill mold spores in used books as well as to pre-treat wool fleeces that I have just purchased, before bringing them in to the house. ( It takes me a while to wash a whole fleece, so I like to know that I’ve killed any hitchhikers.).
I am impressed by the happy results with all this washing. The article is very interesting, I learned quite a bit, so thanks a lot.
Are you able tio find natural canphor in your country? Mine comes form China (of course) and it is far better than the awful synthetic moth balls.
Maybe I should mail you some…
That would be my most horrible nightmare! I think moths don’t live in winter time, so for the moment I am safe, but I guess it’s just luck that until now I escaped their attacks in summer time. Reminder for me: put every piece of wool in plastic bags/containers in spring.
Thanks for your posts on my blog, I love discovering yours.
forgot to say the moth artwork is beautiful.
Thanks Gwen! The moth artwork was made from photos of the wall stickers fluttering around my bathroom.
Wow! You are so thorough. Good job…keep us posted.
Love.
Well, that’s a fine howdy-do !~! (as an old aunt used to say when confronted with news such as yours.) Wow-lotta work, Sherrie. I hope it does the trick for you. May I forward this post on to my friend in the Oakland Hills who has an entire cedar cabinet full of woolens?
Happy Holidays, Sherrie, I so enjoy your blog and its pictures, many thanks for sharing your life with me.
ugh. fingers crossed you got ‘em all!
I think you also need one of these http://hoolatallulah.blogspot.com/2011/11/if-moths-could-read.html
Oh that’s fantastic!!! At least I’m not alone!