XXXIX.A WORD ABOUT MOTHS.
“MOTHS in the winter! Pray don’t speak of them! Some weeks later will be time enough to stir up our minds by way of remembrance. The vexatious little torments! they surely don’t work in winter! And yet I have noticed several little spots, or holes, that looked as if eaten by moths. I am sure they were not there early in the fall: I couldn’t understand it, but was so confident that moths did not do their mischief in winter, that I have been trying to find some other cause for these marks.”
Ah! there was where you were mistaken. There are two kinds of moths,—one a large silver-colored fly; its worm is shaped somewhat like those found in chestnuts. The other was first noticed some eight or ten years since, by the upholsterers. It is smaller, of a brown or dark drab color. It is governed by no times or seasons, but works steadily on, summer and winter. The heat of our city homes or furnace-heated country-houses may promote this uninterrupted activity. The moth or fly, it is said, finds its way into a sofa or chair between the back or seat under the lining, where,among the springs, it finds a safe and convenient hiding-place. They will often secure a home in these secret places within a week of the time that furniture, right from the cabinet-maker’s, has been brought into the house. If they do, they are so enormously prolific that in a month or two they can be numbered by thousands. We cannot but think that when, in a carefully kept house, these moths are found in new furniture, they must have been first introduced through poorly prepared hair or material with which the article was upholstered or the hair, having been wet, was used before it was carefully dried. This theory may be only an imagination of our own but every year’s experience confirms the idea,—upholsterers to the contrary notwithstanding.
It is said that these moths will not eat pure curled hair, but only use it to fasten their cocoons upon, as being secure from any disturbance, through the elasticity of the hair. They use the inside of furniture only for propagation, and here at the same time may be found the fly, the worms, and the eggs. From this concealment the worm escapes, to feed on the plush or woolen materials, or, falling to the floor, feeds on the carpet. Plush being made with cotton back generally, they seldom eat through that, though they do sometimes cut through the muslin backs of sofas, etc. Little protection may be hoped for from the use of cayenne pepper, Scotch snuff, camphor, turpentine, or all other remedies against the large moth. Continual watchfulness is the only safety.
At least once a week the furniture should be moved away from the walls into the middle of the room and well brushed and beaten with a “furniture whip” or braided ratans. After brushing carefully all around the buttons with a furniture button-brush, pull up the material which will lie in loose folds or pleats about the buttons, and hold them up with one hand while you brush off all lint or dust that mayhave settled in these folds. These are nice little hiding-places for the worm, and must be looked after. As fast as each piece of furniture has been faithfully brushed and whipped, set it into the next room and keep the doors closed.
While cleaning, turn each chair or sofa bottom-side upward and beat the backs and under part of the seats, to dislodge any that may have found shelter inside. When the furniture has received all needed attention, and is removed from the room, give the carpet a thorough cleansing by going over it with a “carpet-sweeper.” Nothing so effectually gathers up the worms or eggs, and the carpet is less worn than when swept with a broom. Of course, in the corners and around the edges, where the “carpet-sweeper” cannot work, you must use a small whisk-broom and dust-pan, and this must be done before going over the main part of the carpet.
In using a “sweeper” be careful to empty it once or twice while going over a large room, pulling out all the strings and hair that may, when gathered up, have twisted around the axle of the circular brush inside the box. If not removed, it will soon obstruct the motion, and its operation be ineffectual. In using a “carpet-sweeper” have everything out of the way of the machine, that you may have a clear surface across the whole length of the room, if possible; hold the handle up nearly straight, so as to bring all the brush underneath in contact with the carpet; press down, and with a firm hand run over the breadth from one end of the room to the other, going by the seam or thread, lengthwise. When at the farther end lift up the box so that it will not touch the carpet, and, turning round, proceed till the whole length of the carpet has been swept; then begin widthwise and proceed in the same manner, only be careful to run straight. If the “sweeper” is turned round while resting on the floor, thedirt is apt to drop out in rolls by the process of turning. It requires a little experience and good judgment to use a “carpet-sweeper” judiciously; but once understand it and you will not willingly be without one. When this work is done, empty all the dirt from the “sweeper” and comb the rolling-brush with a coarse or “fringe-comb.”
But to return to the moths. If they get inside your furniture, they may be destroyed by taking off the muslin under the seats, the outside ends, and the backs, where they most naturally seek privacy. If this must be done, take each piece out to the yard or on a back veranda, after you have removed the lining; spread down an old sheet and set the furniture on it, and beat with a stick to dislodge the moths. Watch for the flies and worms that you have routed, and kill them as fast as they are seen. If you do not succeed in killing all of them, by a repetition of this operation a few times they will be disturbed and leave the furniture, as they seek to be left in quiet. If they attack the carpet they generally begin under the sofas and chairs or on the edges of the carpet in the corners of the room. In this case, as soon as you find the first intimation of their ill-omened presence, spread a wet sheet on the carpet, and pass a hot flat-iron over quickly; keep a number of irons heating and change often. The heat and steam will destroy both worm and egg.
But do not let this success beguile you into any remissness. They can “creep slyly through a tiny space,” and in a few weeks, if they find you sleeping on your post, will effect an entrance, and will have increased and multiplied until the last state of that furniture will be worse than the first.