Anyone ever have bugs?

[madkasel 0]

I store mine in file folder bins like these, using zip lock bags of course.

 

 

At the hardware store I found a box of mothballs that has the mothballs in little bag things that have a cedar scent to them. It smells OK and they've kept bugs out so far.

[fishthis 0]

WARNING! DON'T DO THIS!!!

After fumbling around in my antique H.Gerstner & Sons tool case (fly tying tool case) to do some last minute fly tying, I discovered some moth larvae munching on my favorite old mink and muskrat furs. After destroying them, I went into "Panic Mode" and rushed out to buy moth balls at our local W-mart. They only had the flake kind and some "lavender flavored" ones. In my haste, I bought the flavored kind (that smell like a urinal mint), along with some large zip-style plastic storage bags and went to work on fumigating my life time collection of materials...and a life time of my tied flies...in their foam lined boxes, all zipped tight in storage bags with the "Flavored" moth balls!!! Weeks later I was ready to fish my flies and could not believe the smell. Almost like tear gas, I loaded them back into my vest and went fishing for bass and pan fish at a local pond(thankfully not one of those expensive, extended trips!). Still wreaking like a urinal mint( and thinking the odor would rinse off), I tied on a bugger and sight fished to a number of fish. To my amazement, they rushed over to intercept my offering and bolted away from it even faster! I decided to change my fly when I noticed it STILL smelled of moth balls!! Worse yet, I decided to see if it tasted like them. BELIEVE ME, it did!!!

I then spent the next several days rinsing and airing out hundreds of flies, strung between chairs on tippet. Also, a modest fly shop sized collection of materials laid out all over my study, deck, kitchen and dining room tables for even longer! Even the hooks smelled of moth balls. I've used the old standard moth balls in the past, but discontinued their use after reading something about how the odor is hazardous to your liver. I'm not sure why everything was so permeated with that odor? But I do think it had something to do with the new and improved "flavored" kind. Thankfully, I have a wonderful and very understanding wife.

I've since looked into the use of cedar blocks and cedar shavings(available from Pet stores for animal cages). I will never use moth balls in and around my materials and especially my fly boxes ever again!

PS Everything seems to have aired out, OK. It's run-off now in my local rivers, so there's lots more time. Hopefully this story has a happy ending and enough folks can learn from my experience. Good luck!

[rockworm 0]

fishthis

 

Thanks for a very enlightening heads up. I have never seen the "minty" balls and will now avoid them like the plague. Beware, however, of relying on cedar chips. Freshly cut cedar does, indeed repel most insects. But it does not kill them. And the cedar chips only work for a month or two (until their smell fades.)

[Guest]

I know we all go to great lengths to protect our materials but I found it really funny in the tyer profile of Fly Tyer I think two issues ago about the Kamloop tyer and the picture shows all his materials clipped up on the wall with NO bags, just hanging by a clip.

 

Makes you wonder sometimes.

 

Fatman

[VERN-O 0]

ahhhh man I've got the lavender moth balls in all my materials.....I haven't noticed the smell staying on the material, but you can bet I'm going to pay closer attention......on a side note the lavender ones are suppose to kill the moths and larva....not just deter them

[ratface 0]

Has anyone tried pieces of "No Pest Strips" cut into small chunks and put inside a pill or film container with small holes drilled into the side? No odor at all, works the best; the active insecticide is dichlorvos.

[Capt Mel Simpson 0]

Over 30 years ago I met a guy that had a picture framing business and a fly museum in a small coastal town in Oregon, don't remember the name, but he used tobacco. Plug chewing tobacco and cigaretts, I also use cheap cigars. I have never had any bugs!

 

Mel

[Trad 0]

I have had bugs in various materials, also in materials from fly-shops and mail order firms. Carpet beetles are the worst, but there are plenty of others. I have also seen some collections of material devastated by various pests.

 

With regard to the various repellents etc. this may be of interest;

 

http://www.mike1.bplaced.net/Wikka/BugsPests

 

Various "flavoured" chemicals as described in the posts above, may or may not work! At least in regard to PDCB and Napthalene, they will work, and airing your materials in a warm place will completely remove the smell or traces of the chemicals, as both these substances sublimate directly, ( turn from a solid into a gas), and this happens quickly if they are only slightly warmed.

 

Cedar and other similar things like lavender and various other herbs are only mild repellents, and you should definitely not rely on them. One or two people I know use the insect strips, ( Dichlorvos CAUTION WITH THIS It is an extremely toxic poison and may cause cancer! See here; http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/tfacts88.html ), and a couple use pieces of the "flea collars" sold for protecting dogs and cats from fleas and ticks. I don´t know whether this is completely reliable. I still use PDCB in all my containers, which are airtight polythene cases.

 

Washing material in hot soapy water which is hotter than 55°C (degrees Celsius), for at least ten minutes, will kill all bugs, and their eggs.

[rhinorods69 0]

left a fishing vest in the garage one year wile painting the door it got covered in moths and larva threw out the vest and got another but moth balls did not kill them. and could not stand the smell of the moth balls so the vest went in to the trash. any ways i should have moved it in the house sooner but at lest i checked it out before i brought it in because it could have been worst. any ways good luck and tight lines rhino.............

[British mike 0]

I have recently had a moth problem and the first I must say in 40 years of tying. I had a bunch of indian and chinese capes ( about 60) and noticed one day some small moths as I opened one of the containers. To my horror there were hundreds of moths dead and alive in the bag

I took them outside and shook all the moths and eggs from the capes, all but 2 of the capes were saved and I have since sealed the bags with moth balls.

All the moths are dead and no more problems to date. The smell of the moth balls has got better over a three week period.

I felt lucky that they did not hit my Hoffman saddles..........or my jungle cock capes.... :headbang:

 

Tight threads all

 

Mike...............................

[DrVette 0]

I have had several run-ins with the carpet Beatles as well as what looks like the same worms you used to find in oats before they found new processing methods(you might still on rare occasions), but we don't seam to have the moths around here.

Working with reptiles years ago i found out that there are sprays out there with stuff called PYRETHRINS that will kill almost any insect egg and larva but also puts most (small) adult insects into paralysis until they finally die. I find it at most pet stores (and use some stuff by four paws now ) sold as bird cage lice and mite spray. It has very little residual odor and if used on any and all new materials along with a touch up spray every Spring and Fall i have had zero problems with any bugs in my materials.

I would also recommend that you store anything that you take fishing with you in a separate room from your materials since there is no telling what may have crawled on it while you were crawling through the weeds and waters. Or re-spay things before introducing them back into that room. I have had zero problems since starting this routine 15+ years ago. On top of that i take cat/dog flea collars and cut them into 1" strips that i put in and around my tying area/materials every spring (it keeps the cats from dragging in new bugs). If you look on herpetology sites you will find that this same routine is used on reptiles by collectors with the warning that you do not put the collars into the reptile enclosures...many are susceptible to neurological disorders that can be caused by confined air with high concentrations of the chems from the collars...they are deadly to any small bug/animal.

These are things that you can do to avoid the lingering smell of naphthalene (moth balls). But they do require a little more attention to respraying.

I hope this might help some.

[-=TroutMaster=- 0]

i think it would work