Always Clean Prior To Storage
Many believe that “proper storage” will, in and of itself, protect your fine garments against damage by various types of insects.
This notion is a myth.
Here’s what you need to know……
The female adult moth can lay up to 200 eggs in a cycle, up to 5 cycles a year. When the female adult moth is searching for the “ideal” egg laying location, she’s looking for a source of nutrition for the larvae to feed on when they hatch. Those larvae must feed in order to survive and grow. Otherwise they die.
Unfortunately, garments stored without first being cleaned contain all the nutrients necessary to sustain life for those larvae. These nutrients include proteins, mineral salts, vitamin B complex and cholesterol that accumulate on your garments from perspiration, body oil, food or beverage simply by virtue of the fact that the garment has been worn.
Here’s one more thing you need to know……
Contrary to conventional wisdom, the larvae don’t “eat your wools.” The wool, itself, is not a food source. Instead, they eat what’s embedded in and on the wool, and, in the process, damage those wool fibers.
“Moth damage” is technically inaccurate; “moth larvae damage” is a more accurate term.
Now that you know what the problem is, the solution is really quite simple:
The only way to guarantee that you don’t have a “moth problem” is to remove the nutrition from your fine wools before you store your garments. And the only way to remove those nutrients is by hand washing and/or dry cleaning your fine wools before you store.
Even if you think your items are clean (“oh, I only wore that suit 3 times since the last cleaning”), you ought to clean them before you store your garments (By the way, if you are adverse to cleaning your made-to-measure or bespoke garments prior to storage for the season, you ought to read this).
Why?
Because there are many different kinds of stains that you may not have seen and that will leave a layer of organic material for the moth larvae to feed on.
Remember the mantra: clean before you store because clean means no nutrition. And no nutrition means no more “moth damage”.
Now that your fine garments are clean, it makes sense to further protect that investment from a variety of possible sources of damage — oil and dust, natural and artificial light, yellowing and insects such as moths, crickets, carpet beetles and silverfish.
Think of garment storage bags as an additional layer of protection for your fine garments.
