Moths in the cupboards

[wyverne]

bay leaves in the containers solved my weevil problems - nowadays i see no weevil, hear no weevil, speak no...

seriously though, weevils are a family of beetles, and are often blamed for food spoilage due to other insect species.

i used to work on an outback sheep station as a governess in the 1960s. conditions were spartan and flour was 'weevily', it just was, even though it was all white flour. they weren't real weevils, but a kind of tiny, shiny dark brown beetle. all flour had to be sifted, but because the beetles were so numerous that they clogged the sifter, nobody was ever very thorough, unless a rare visitor was expected. the beetles were cooked into most baked foods and we had to regard them as 'extra protein'. you soon got used to it, and to be honest, you couldn't taste them at all.

wyverne

[ina]

Oh yes, I know this "enriched" bread... When I was in France, we had these beetles in the grain - we milled our own. So before you stuck it in the mill, you spent some time sorting out the beetles. Depending on how busy you were, some were left. And what we definitely couldn't get out was their eggs or larvae, which were inside the grains...

And that to me, a vegetarian!

[witch way?]

I found a bayleaf in each jar a success too. W.

[Andy Hamilton]

Bay leaf all the way, found a load of them perhaps even a year old looking tired and faded. Still worked. Now having to get rid of moths in the living room

[frozenthunderbolt]

im inclined to agree weevil wise. added protein "they're sesssame seeds" . . . as for the moths try camphor balls, and cedar chips or oil - clothes were stored in cedar chests by those who could afford them in the old day because they helped to repell moths

[wyverne]

if it's clothes moths you mean, lavender works - you could include it in a pot pourri with camphor laurel, southernwood etc. but it needs to be strong - you need several placed around the room, or else put it in sachets to protect things in drawers.

the easiest way is to spray the room, especially the carpet and soft furnishings very lightly with a mixture of water and eucalyptus oil. use a very fine mist and you don't need much. about a teaspoon of oil to a cup of water would be strong enough and would be enough for several rooms. at that strength it won't leave marks. it's very effective, contacts all the surfaces and will repel some other insects too.

i once knitted a cardigan out of handspun woollen yarn, half of which i'd dyed bright orange with eucalyptus bark from a river red gum that grows in my backyard. i knitted it in thin horizontal stripes (the jumper not the river red gum ), white and orange with bands of natural chocolate brown wool from a coloured sheep. one summer i left it in a drawer and the moths got in. i found it in autumn with all the white stripes eaten out and the brown bands turned to fragile felty fluff, but the orange stripes were completely untouched!

wyverne

[mrsflibble]

[frozenthunderbolt]

Awsome! ready made sweat bands!