I had moths come in with some yarn a couple years ago. Found the infestation, got rid of it (a whole bag of Dale of Norway!), thought I was done. But then I'd keep finding a stray moth, just one every couple of weeks, usually in the bedroom near Husband's closet door. After investigating, we found that a small group were quietly propagating in the closet. My cat likes to hang out there, and a light layer of cat fuzz and dander on the carpet in the corner was all they needed to produce an adult every so often. We didn't find any clothing damage, even though he stored wool suit coats, pants, and sweaters in there. (Why forage for food when the cat kindly deposited hair every week?)
After freaking out a little and vacuuming A LOT, I thought the problem was solved. But then I kept finding a stray moth, every so often, this time in the laundry room, where we store no clothes and have nothing (presumably) that they could be eating. What the...? Then I found an old handspun, handknit cat toy, stuffed with wool and catnip, that the cats had played with so much that the toy had holes in it. It was under the sink and partially hidden by the cabinet overhang. I picked it up and saw frass - a ha, the culprit! The holes were insect damage, not cat's play. I threw it out. Haven't seen a live moth since - but I did see a bunch of dead ones when I cleaned out the filters on the air exchanger. Yuck. For protective measures, I store my yarn and fiber in large plastic totes with a bar of Irish Spring soap. It's dirt cheap and smells strong far longer than lavendar or cedar gives off scent. I haven't had any moisture problems from storing in plastic. So far - knock on wood - I haven't had any moths in the stash. Close inspection of each purchase is your best bet. Storage in small, separated containers is the next measure - that way, if it gets past inspection and wreaks havoc, at least the damage is contained to 1 batch of fiber. Moths can survive freeze-thaw cycles, freezing is not a fail-safe method. I would not try to save infested fiber because it is likely to be damaged, and who wants to be picking out bug parts during processing, but if you have something that you think is fine and you want to take precautionary measures, really hot washes, microwaving small batches, or putting everything in black garbage bags and leaving it in the trunk of the car for a few weeks in the summer (oh, but the raw wool smell!) will do the job. June [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
