Fiber Snob 3

Here we are at the third post in our trilogy (here and here) on fancy schmancy textiles.

WARNING: This post is not for the squeamish (which I am, so why am I even posting this...). No seriously. Stop reading if bugs gross you out.









No really, last chance.













OK, don't say I didn't warn you...

Moths are not particularly scary, as insects go. But to a knitter--or really anyone who values animal-based fabrics like wool and silk--they are pure evil. Because moths love to eat these fabrics for the protein.

So you can imagine my concern when we started seeing little beige moths that may or may not be these flying around our living room:

All my precious winter knits were already in vacuum bags on the very wise suggestion of my friend and fellow knitter, as was my "stash" (a common knitting term for all the as-yet-unknit yarn). Our food was also stored securely as Fort Knox, because a moth infestation in our previous apartment has made us lock up everything in jars and tupperware. It was summer and the house was generally full of bugs (more on that in a future post), so despite a nagging worry, I didn't think much of it.

And then one day a few weeks ago, while searching for a travel umbrella, I opened up a cubby in our Expedit and found the source...

It was just a tiny thing. One little moth fluttered up at me when I pulled the seagrass basket out:

That's when I remembered all the hats, mittens, and scarves that we store right there, near the front door. I had completely forgotten about them all spring and summer!

Needless to say, I shouted for D and he took care of the rest (including taking all of the following pictures). The inside of the basket was basically a nest of moth larvae:

We threw that right into the trash.

Our knit goods fared pretty badly as well. Here's a (store-bought, thank goodness) scarf covered in larvae. They made their home on the side made of fleece:

And ate their dinner from the side made of wool:

They particularly enjoyed feasting on my (again, store-bought) cashmere scarf:

The only really tragic victim was one hand-knit scarf. My favorite (of course...). It was too badly injured but there were a few holes and, frankly, who wants to wear a scarf that was covered in moth larvae?! Even after a thorough cleaning. So this beauty went into the trash as well.

I should be grateful. The moths hadn't found the other cubby full of mittens and hats (which are now freshly washed and wrapped up in ziploc). There were a few other casualties--cheap acrylic scarves that didn't hold up well in the scalding hot wash cycle I put them through. The moths didn't eat them but they sure set up residence on them, so the only way I would ever consider wearing them was if they survived several loads on high heat. Some didn't make it.

There was really no way to avoid it, except obviously to be better about wrapping up our woolens. But seriously, how do these things get in?! Nasty!

So have you had any unwelcome and unpleasant critters hiding in your home and eating your food or knitwear? How have you dealt with infestations and what do you do to prevent them?