I was in a hurry naturally, so I grabbed a pelt off the latest shipment and sheared the beast on the spot. Plastic container brimming with fur I rushed back into the kitchen, refastened the jumper cables to the grinder and glanced skyward, hoping for another lightning bolt.

Gals have it easy. They say “ … maybe” and create life. Guys are forced to wade in dead stuff, endure hellish amperages and archaic lab apparatus, then peer hesitantly at our efforts and wish we’d stopped when it needed stitches…

With 20 eager fly tiers expecting more samples of Singlebarbed’s Madness – and me thinking another six colors would be enough, 120 packs of fur is a weekend of hand labor.

I’m in between pack 86 and the finish line, and reach down into the jug to see a moth emerge from that freshly shorn pile.

Nice.

I shook some moth ice into the container, sealed it, and put it in quarantine.

Packs 1 through 86 went into the trash.

Normally I’m proof against such things, as “invasives” are just a fly shop visit away. In the old days every shop had unwanted lifeforms and us budding entomologists weren’t limited to aquatic bugs, we could rattle off genus, species, and the address of the source with a single glance …

“Big brown speckled sucker with a yen for Bucktail? Yep, that’s from Creative Sports in Walnut Creek, they call ‘em ‘Shallow Flapping Retail Duns.’ “

Moth eggs being teensy little things capable of trickling into every crack and crevasse – it’s only a matter of time before something hungry starts on the pile of undefended in the back room.

As mentioned many times, jobbers have replaced all those caches of local material, but rest assured they’re infected too – it’s part and parcel of storing so much tasty, if you stack it, They will come.

As we’re a well known hoarder, where net value is measured in pounds versus square inches, I’ve had my share of strange looks at the dinner table – especially after the fork falls nervelessly at my feet and I’m running down something slow and moth-like. It’s them or me, and no quarter is asked nor granted.

While I don’t mind so much the occasional overlooked baggie that falls under the storage area and became lunch, the idea of sending pestilence to someone else is completely horrid.

…which is why the garbage man will be puzzling over the contents of my can for some time.

The Killing Fields

Cedar chests have long been recommended for use in clothes moths control. However, claims for the repellency of cedar compounds are frequently overstated. It is true that the heartwood of red cedar (Juniperus virginiana) contains volatile oils that kill clothes moth larvae, when the oils are in high concentration. However, these oils do not repel adult stages nor do they affect other woolen pests, such as carpet beetles. Furthermore, the effectiveness of cedar declines in older chests, as the concentration of the oils dissipates due to evaporation. One study suggests that chests more than three years are practically useless for killing clothes moth larvae.

Now that I’m receiving hides in volume I recognize the only strategy possible is a defense-in-depth.

… which is located outside, so I don’t pickle myself in the process. If a neighbor wrinkles their nose and asks “what’s that smell” just tell them it’s embalming fluid, they won’t ask a follow up.

Paradichlorobenzene (Moth Ice – KB) is generally more toxic to insects than naphthalene, particularly for carpet beetles. At temperatures above about 50 degrees F it turns into a heavier-than-air gas that kills all stages of clothes moths and carpet beetles if maintained at high concentrations for 2 to 3 weeks.

A shipment (or a fly shop visit) is quickly pored over outside, then it’s placed in the chamber of death, a large cardboard box lined with mothballs. I’m never sure which is better, moth ice or the ball flavor, so after three or four days of that I’ll decant them into the middle box whose substrate is pure moth ice.

Naphthalene is most often available as ‘moth balls’ and is an effective fumigant against clothes moths. Carpet beetles, however, are much more resistant to naphthalene and often are poorly controlled. Naphthalene is a fumigant, and is effective only if high concentrations of the gas are produced.

After a week it makes the top box, where it often sits for another week to see if anything emerges. The exception being hides that I’ll dye – as the exposure to scalding acid-laced water seems to kill everything just as permanent.

High temperatures can also disinfest woolen materials from insects. Temperatures of 110 degrees F to 120 degrees F are generally lethal to all insects if maintained for 30 minutes or more.

After the suspect material has passed all levels of decontamination, I’ll wash the hide or feathers in shampoo and dry for storage. Human shampoo and conditioner works on animal fur just as it does on your mane, pick something with a pleasing scent to assist in disguising rotting flesh or naptha.

I find decontaminated hides that haven’t had the Naptha residue washed off an irritant, especially to my eyes. A casual scratch or back of the hand passed over the eye area can leave a residual trail of chemical, hence the shampoo before storage.

In 1997, a plant-derived repellent, lavandin oil, received registration. It is marketed under the trade name OFF! Moth ProoferR. This is sold in a sachet form. It is designed to hang between clothes in closets or placed in storage chests.

Directions indicate use on clothes after they have been dry cleaned, so use under other conditions (such as stored wool or woven goods not easily dry cleaned) is unknown. However, lavandin oil is lethal to clothes moths. Use directions also indicate that the product should be used in a closed storage area to allow the lavandin oil to be in effective concentrations.

Long term storage I use cedar shavings (available as hampster bedding in pet stores) or I’ll line the bottom of the chest or drawer with cedar tongue and groove – available as closet liner from Lowe’s or the hardware store. Every year I’ll go through and take a sander to the wood to refresh the pleasing scent and whatever protection it provides, at the same time it forces me to inspect some of those forgotten materials – seldom used – that will host intruders without my noticing.

Moths are quite sensitive to drying agents, and many arid states like Colorado have much less of an issue. As computer electronics is always shipped with big packets of chemical desiccant, I store the extra packs that I’ll use to dry surface flies (but don’t need yet) among my tying materials.

Clothes moths are very sensitive to drying conditions as well. Optimal relative humidity (RH) is around 75 percent. In RH less than 20 percent to 30 percent clothes moths will not survive.

– via Colorado State University

Especially those areas of confined space, where the odorless desiccant can drop the relative humidity to lethal levels.

It’s bad enough that fly tying is frustrating as well as hellishly expensive, especially so if you’re losing much of your older purchases to unwelcome guests.

Defense in depth and the backbone not to rush to the table with a sack full of newly purchased which is promptly intermingled with all your pristine materials. No less precautions than our wading mantra; Clean, Fry, and Giggle.

… and there’ll be no samples this week, fellows. I was thinking of you however …