I Hate Moths
Posted By Judith on 24th August 2015
I hate moths, but before all you lepidopterists out there take umbrage, let me explain why.
It’s not all moths, just ‘Tineola bisselliella’, better known as the common clothes moth.
It started some years ago when a gang of them ate my teddy bear. I’d had him since I was 1 year old and loved him dearly, but that didn’t stop them dining out on him.
Whilst ‘Bonzo’, ‘Tiddles’ and ‘Little Teddy’ were all unharmed, ‘Big Teddy’ suffered catastrophic injuries. (Yes, I had as little imagination back then as I do today!)
Fast forward to ‘Grassy Bottom’.
Having almost finished polishing the floor, we decided to unroll our Chinese rug.
We bought it over 20 years ago, but due to moving, renting, moving, renovations and decorating, it’s been rolled up for most of the last 2 years.
We thought it would look good in the middle of the polished floor, and we were right it would, were it not for the fact that my old friend ‘Tineola bisselliella’ had been at work.
Most of it is OK, but along one edge there is some ‘fraying’ and a few bald patches as you can see here.
Fortunately, the rug can be laid so that this edge is hidden from all but the keenest observer, but that’s not the whole story.
The cotton backing was covered with what, for want of a better word, I will call ‘fall-out’ from this infestation.
Our first idea was to hoover it thoroughly, but it soon became apparent that wasn’t going to do the trick. It had to be removed and thrown away.
Not a small job, the rug is 12′ by 9′, heavy and difficult to manoeuvre, but to cut a long story short we spent an entire afternoon cutting, unpicking and hoovering until we reached the stage where we were satisfied that most of the moths and their ‘debris’ had been dealt with.
A bit of glue here, a bit of trimming there, some more hoovering and a sprinkling of insecticide, job done.
We’re pretty pleased with the result. Trouble is it isn’t really ‘job done’ because we still need to finish polishing the floor. Hey-ho!
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.