Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 May 1892 — The Devasting Moth-Worm. [ARTICLE]

The Devasting Moth-Worm.

It is well to remember that the moth never destroys woolens; it is the worm. It is well to remember that camphor and all the other vile odors in the world will never protect fabrics in the least. If a woman puts a garment away that has so much us one moth egg, a ton of camphor won't prevent that egg from hatching, if there's any hatch to it. The only way to preserve a garment from the ravages of the moth is to be absolutely sure in the first place that a moth has laid no eggs in it, and this is not easy to discover, because with the mother instinct it creeps into dark crevices, the more obscure the better, and its eggs are ns small as the point of a pin. It coats these eggs or incrusts them with a covering, and you might beat and beat the garment and not in the slightest degree hurt the eggs. Now you can put that garment away in a camphor chest and heap a ton of camphor on top of it, yet if one of these eggs hatches a worm, that worm will start in to feed. The only way to be sure that none of these eggs are put away in a garment is to keep the garment out under constant surveillance for two or three weeks before putting it away, and in that time any newly hatched worm will develop into a size that con be readily seen. Once a garment is absolutely free of the egg or the worm, it can then be tied up in a paper parcel, or anything else that will keep the living moth out, with perfect impunity, for a moth will never bore its way into anything.—[Tire Upholsterer.