Pesky critters

Yesterday, I needed a 16″ circular size 8 knitting needle to start a new project, and I couldn’t find one!  “That can’t be,” said Doug.  “You have every size knitting needle known to man.”  (This, of course, is a slight exaggeration.)  I ran around the house searching through various knitting bags, looking for the right needle.  I found lots of size 8 needles, all of them too long.  I found lots of 16″ circulars, all of them too big or too small.  I grabbed a big blue canvas bag which was sitting downstairs next to Doug’s electric guitar.  For months I have been dumping into it any yarn or knitting related things which end up in the living room.  Thus, it had bits and pieces of lots of projects, including lots of yarn.

I upended the bag on the floor, searched through it for the right needle (which I couldn’t find), threw all of the yarn and assorted paraphernalia back in the bag, and then looked down in horror to discover a critter that had obviously dropped out of the bag.  A very, very small critter, of the larval variety, and obviously alive.  After a moment to let the shock diminish, I jumped up, ran outside to the freezer in the garage and threw the entire bag in, which involved some judicial reshuffling of freezer contents.  Did you know that freezing for 48 hours will kill moths and their eggs?  But that is just one bag of yarn….I have many, many bags of yarn.

Then, I ran to the store and bought plastic containers, with tightly sealed lids; some for storing yarn and some for storing sweaters. Then, I bought moth spray, and cedar sachets and lavendar sachets.  Now, I will systematically wash and store everything wool in the entire house, and then move each piece into it’s own protective container with moth repellant herbs.  I will empty all of the closets and drawers and spray with moth spray.  I will air everything out.  And I will carefully look at every skein and ball of wool in the house, and if it is suspect, will throw it in the freezer for 48 hours, and then carefully pick through it and air dry and store it.  This may take months!  Am I overreacting?  I don’t think so.  You know what this means, pesky critters?  This means war!

9 thoughts on “Pesky critters

  1. I am very sympathetic–we had a bedbug scare a while back, and ever since I have tried to keep all my yarn sealed in separate bags. With the move, that’s fallen apart a little, but still. There was a long period where we had a bag or two of yarn in the freezer at all times, just in case!

      • I read somewhere that clothes moths are drawn to unwashed (i.e. worn) sweaters. I now make a point of washing all my store-bought merino and cashmere sweaters at the end of the season before storing them. The only sweaters I’ve had compromised were those I had neglected to wash, even after having worn them just one time during the season.

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