The World's Gone Mad - Have a Rant

Not sure why you would be upset that dangerous, carcinogenic artificial chemicals designed to out-gas into the atmosphere of your home would be banned.

Fair point Winky - having looked up naphthalene.

John.

I'd guess the regulators have taken a pretty conservative approach, and that the risk of normal usage is actually very low, but what's a few holes in our clothes Vs the potential risk to our health?

John, have you tried the  cedar wood balls and allied products?

Yes indeed Winky. And we can still legally buy tobacco and smoke it.

Funny old world.

John.

It looks like that's the safe way to go Howard.

John.

Has anybody ever actually had a moth eat their clothes?  Can't say its ever happened to me or that we get ennough moths around here to need moth balls.  What kind of clothes do they prefer?

 Expensive cashmere* sweaters, and 100% wool Axminster carpets.

Little b@stards

*spelling corrected...playing Led Zep as I was typing   

Yes and anything wool. Not just bloody expensive cashmere! Very annoying. 

That's me safe then.  Has everyone else suddenly got strange faces at the bottom of their comments or a I trippiing, possibly through lack of moth ball gasses?

I once lost the cloth off my billiard table!

I'm truly amazed, have never known anyone who has had a problem and always assumed it was an urban myth. I will have to start closing my windows at night time!

Moths are only a minor annoyance compared with other creatures that could damage clothing.

Many years ago, my wife decided to keep the hamsters warm over night by placing my leather coat over the cage. When I discovered what she'd done it in the morning, there wasn't a lot of lining left.

On the plus side hamsters don't fly in through your window of a night, although maybe they do elsewhere in the country along with those clothes eating moths! 

Little pricks ruined the trousers of a beautiful Hickey Freeman suit I have - can't bear to throw them away but I should.  Just one hole on the back of the leg.

I had a jacket ruined by moths. Found hole eaten on the front. I look out for them all the time in the house and kill them. I have a UV light zapper on the wall in the kitchen and this kills a fair few at night. They fly out of our kitchen cupboards quite a number of times. Small brown ones are the ones to watch out for. They're a damn nuisance.

Yep, chewed a hole in the back of my wife's wool/cashmere Hugo Boss coat.

Moth damage to wool products was so common where I grew up in northeastern Ohio that many folks there had a cedar-lined closet or chest for dedicated woolen storage. My family had a cedar closet, in spite of which, I can remember as a child using several wool blankets on my bed that had a few moth holes in them. Not so much a big deal for a blanket, but certainly would be for a suit or coat. Moths don't seem to be an issue now in the Seattle area, but I'd be abhorred to find one of my beloved Filson coats attacked. 

Yup, them's the ones! I find one or two every morning in the en-suite. I open the window and give them a few minutes 'window of opportunity"* to escape, otherwise.......

*pun intended 

Problem with moth balls is actually seeing them, same with hamsters.

I think they're called bats. Had a few of those flying round the bedroom at night.

I never had much success with mothballs. The little devils fly so fast I just can't manage to hit them.

Back to serious - I had £1500's worth of wool carpet ruined by moths,  man-made fibre from now on.

My domestic goddess uses lavender as a moth repellent with clothes - not the DIN-DIN things - we cut & bag new seasons lavender & then top them up with lavender oil in spring when the moths become active again & before the new seasons lavender is ready.  Cedar does the same thing,  smells a bit more manly for those who are a little unsure about smelling of lavender. 

Same here - no problem with clothes but a bugger with the carpets. No problems since changing to man made fibres. 

Indeed! If we all switched to man made fibers, the only ones afflicted would be the sheep. Then moths would become an issue only for the mutton eaters and we could shift this topic over to the Linn Forum.