Monday 21 July 2014

War on Moths

If you should ever look for a new post on Seraphic Singles and be disappointed, you may safely reflect that I have not written as I am up to my eyebrows in housework. This year the Historical House has been infested with moths, and having engaged in a desultory and mostly defensive battle with them (most nice things having been put for safety into a large insecticidal closet), I am now on the offensive.

Sadly, though, I must report a lost battle. The wretched beasties got B.A.'s pure wool purple pullover, the one I bought him myself. It was kept on the bedroom shelf, which is near enough the bed to rule out the use of insecticide, and when I pulled everything down in today's "Special Cleaning Project", there a horrible moth was, bold as brass, perched on B.A's sweater. Naturally I squashed the horrid thing between my fingers, but when I checked for damage, there it was: nasty telltale little holes.

So now the handsome pullover has been stuffed into a plastic bag sealed shut with cellotape and is sitting by the kitchen rubbish can. But on the plus side, the shelf is tidy and there is one less moth in the world.

Meanwhile, I have hauled from the insecticidal closet 20 years worth of B.A.'s shirts (he throws nothing out) and told him I was taking them to the used clothing store. So he has removed half of them, which he will keep, unworn, for another five years, and then I will smuggle them out of the house. Five years is long enough for wifely piety around the sacrosanctity of a husband's old stuff, imagine ten.

8 comments:

Leah said...

Haha! My husband is the same way. :) He has terribly stained shirts from college that he's hauled around for the past ten years rather than throwing them out. Last month I packed them away under the bed, so that when he noticed they were missing I could just tell him that they were packed away. In another few months or so I'll get rid of them and he'll never notice. :)

Julia said...

Why do they keep them?

MaryJane said...

You squashed it with your *fingers*?!

Very brave of you!

Seraphic said...

British clothes moths are tiny and crunch when you squish them, and I have been killing them for 5 months so now it's no biggie.

How many shirts does a man need?!?!

lauren said...

I'm moving soon. As I've been packing, I've been embarrassed to discover how many clothes I have lying around that I don't wear. I've got four bags of clothes and shoes destined for the charity shop!

Seraphic said...

Julia, that is a mystery. I now have to buy a dozen hangers, and I have no idea where I am to hang these shirts. To be fair, though, I would scream with dismay if B.A. suggested that I part with my notes from theology school.

Julia said...

Well, I'm kind of the opposite of a hoarder, so I throw away old school notes with glee.

Hilary Jane Margaret White said...

You should learn to darn. I have darned loads of beloved old cardies, and have even learned to do a little embroidery over top of the holes.