I know no one likes it when I say this, but I believe in mothballs and cedar balls and plastic bins. Every Memorial day to about 1 October, I put everything away. So far, so good! My feeling is if the mothballs are in the bins and then you put the sweaters outside in the fall to air out, you are barely interacting with the chemicals. I might get cancer at 80, at least i'll have saved my sweaters! :) My mother has a closet lined with cedar...I'm so jealous. I am going to vacuum under the rug though. I'm shocked this is the first time you've seen a moth!
That's funny that you mention mothballs. I went down another rabbit hole when my mom started putting them in every closet of her home. I had no idea they were toxic and had a freakout and tried to mitigate the situation. This was just a few weeks ago. The thing that I remember about mothballs is that it permeates into the fibers of fabric and surfaces so it's really hard to get the smell out. I did buy a bunch of cedar products and put them everywhere (including inside the piano!). Yeah, I was so ignorant about the whole moth situation, but we didn't have rugs all the time (our old cat always like to scratch them) and there were quite a few years when we didn't have a cat either. I'm thinking these aren't coincidences.
I love the internet rabbit hole. Haha I’m the one person at dinners “well did you know…” and I think it’s helpful most of the time. But ugh now this is a reminder to find a way to destroy the moths I see in our home
oh noooo. I swear I think everyone has them. Let me know if you have any questions. Due to internet rabbit holes and my obsessive personality, I feel pretty competent at tackling this!
Oh, this is so complex. What specifically do you want to know? I never did mold remediation on my own, but the proper way to do it is to seal off the area when taking out drywall so as not to spread the spores around the rest of the home. It's best to have some sort of air scrubber that vents outside. At the time, some remediates did not do this critical step!!
I TOTALLY relate to this post. We have the same moth problem and have been battling it for a few years, as we're not as thorough as you. BUT, also found via an internet rabbit hole, trichogramma parasitic wasps have been pretty successful at keeping the population down during the not blazing-hot-enough-to-kill-mail-ordered-bugs seasons. I order 8 consecutive weeks of them in the spring and then some in the fall if the moths are still around. That, plus vacuum/plastic/backseat of car in summer...what kind of hepa vacuum do you use?
I have heard about these wasps and I would totally do it if our moth situation was out of hand. After I saw that single moth in the closet, we got a single moth in the trap in our other 4 closets for the next few days. Just one moth per day. This morning, no new moths—fingers crossed!
Our hepa vacuum is a Nilfisk Family Vacuum. It's discontinued but there seems to be newer canister models. It's the best and have gotten us through all of the various house issues. Not cheap (we actually got our condo builder to cover the costs in part of a settlement about the mold) but it's still going 20 years later and it has saved us over the years many times over)
I felt like between the two kids I was dealing with lice every single year for years! I got so good at getting rid of it, that it was like no big deal, just a huge annoyance.
OMG WAIT. I saw a small mothy thing flying around the other day! Crap - I now have a feeling I’m going to spend the rest of this weekend cleaning. (I too bought the white carpet of close to my Pinterest dreams when we redid our apartment!)
I love a rabbit hole! I used to love sitting in the library researching things, when I was kid, and later as a young adult strolling through Barnes and Noble with my giant coffee looking for interesting things. Having it all at my fingertips now has taken some of the joy away. Hasn't stopped me from deep diving on the most random, pointless things though! 😅
The chase vs the convenience. I think the old way of sitting in the library was just enough rabbit holing to keep us from going insane with too much information overload, especially when we can't always trust what we see on the internet!
“Hey, if you can utilize some of your neurosis in your job, then you are winning somewhere at life.” So relatable! 🙈
haha! I really hold onto that, otherwise it's very very easy to believe I am always in crazy town.
Same!
😂🥰
I know no one likes it when I say this, but I believe in mothballs and cedar balls and plastic bins. Every Memorial day to about 1 October, I put everything away. So far, so good! My feeling is if the mothballs are in the bins and then you put the sweaters outside in the fall to air out, you are barely interacting with the chemicals. I might get cancer at 80, at least i'll have saved my sweaters! :) My mother has a closet lined with cedar...I'm so jealous. I am going to vacuum under the rug though. I'm shocked this is the first time you've seen a moth!
That's funny that you mention mothballs. I went down another rabbit hole when my mom started putting them in every closet of her home. I had no idea they were toxic and had a freakout and tried to mitigate the situation. This was just a few weeks ago. The thing that I remember about mothballs is that it permeates into the fibers of fabric and surfaces so it's really hard to get the smell out. I did buy a bunch of cedar products and put them everywhere (including inside the piano!). Yeah, I was so ignorant about the whole moth situation, but we didn't have rugs all the time (our old cat always like to scratch them) and there were quite a few years when we didn't have a cat either. I'm thinking these aren't coincidences.
I love the internet rabbit hole. Haha I’m the one person at dinners “well did you know…” and I think it’s helpful most of the time. But ugh now this is a reminder to find a way to destroy the moths I see in our home
oh noooo. I swear I think everyone has them. Let me know if you have any questions. Due to internet rabbit holes and my obsessive personality, I feel pretty competent at tackling this!
I’d like to hear more about getting rid of mold!
Oh, this is so complex. What specifically do you want to know? I never did mold remediation on my own, but the proper way to do it is to seal off the area when taking out drywall so as not to spread the spores around the rest of the home. It's best to have some sort of air scrubber that vents outside. At the time, some remediates did not do this critical step!!
Such a great post, and thank you for the mention.
Absolutely, Louise.
I TOTALLY relate to this post. We have the same moth problem and have been battling it for a few years, as we're not as thorough as you. BUT, also found via an internet rabbit hole, trichogramma parasitic wasps have been pretty successful at keeping the population down during the not blazing-hot-enough-to-kill-mail-ordered-bugs seasons. I order 8 consecutive weeks of them in the spring and then some in the fall if the moths are still around. That, plus vacuum/plastic/backseat of car in summer...what kind of hepa vacuum do you use?
I have heard about these wasps and I would totally do it if our moth situation was out of hand. After I saw that single moth in the closet, we got a single moth in the trap in our other 4 closets for the next few days. Just one moth per day. This morning, no new moths—fingers crossed!
Our hepa vacuum is a Nilfisk Family Vacuum. It's discontinued but there seems to be newer canister models. It's the best and have gotten us through all of the various house issues. Not cheap (we actually got our condo builder to cover the costs in part of a settlement about the mold) but it's still going 20 years later and it has saved us over the years many times over)
Introducing wasps to kill your moths is next level! I will be rabbit holing.
Nature is amazing. Our moth issue is totally under control but I really want to try this - and I will if it remerges.
Just the mention of lice made my head crawl! oh the things other parents don't tell you, you just find out!
I felt like between the two kids I was dealing with lice every single year for years! I got so good at getting rid of it, that it was like no big deal, just a huge annoyance.
OMG WAIT. I saw a small mothy thing flying around the other day! Crap - I now have a feeling I’m going to spend the rest of this weekend cleaning. (I too bought the white carpet of close to my Pinterest dreams when we redid our apartment!)
nooooooooooo
I love a rabbit hole! I used to love sitting in the library researching things, when I was kid, and later as a young adult strolling through Barnes and Noble with my giant coffee looking for interesting things. Having it all at my fingertips now has taken some of the joy away. Hasn't stopped me from deep diving on the most random, pointless things though! 😅
The chase vs the convenience. I think the old way of sitting in the library was just enough rabbit holing to keep us from going insane with too much information overload, especially when we can't always trust what we see on the internet!