Hi I'm Kirby Allison,
and welcome to my home.
We love helping the well-dressed
take care of their wardrobes.
In today's video,
I'm going to be talking about how to protect
your wardrobe against the devastation
of clothing moths.
Wherever you may live,
all wardrobes are susceptible
to clothing moths.
Unfortunately,
there is just no good information
readily available about how to
protect your wardrobe against clothing
moths and also what to
do in the unfortunate event
you have a clothing moth infestation.
If you're someone like me,
that is really into quality clothing
and has invested in your wardrobe,
this is something that is definitely
worth taking time to do.
Don't be like me
and wait too long to implement some
of these techniques
and then discover that some of your favorite
pieces fell victim to a clothing moth.
If you have any questions
or comments during this video,
please feel free to ask them in the comments section
below. I get back to all those
questions personally.
Clothes moths are tiny little bugs
that feed on a protein called keratin.
Now, keratin is a naturally occurring
protein on animals,
which is why clothing moths only
go after products
that are wool,
cashmere,
furs,
feathers,
anything that is a natural animal
byproduct.
A moth infestation can be devastating,
and because they are so difficult to
detect,
by the time you discover that you have a problem,
too often it is too late to save
your favorite items of clothing.
There are two types of clothing moths,
casemaking moths,
which palpate on what they are infesting,
so if they're attacking a red jacket
their cocoon will be red.
These moths are easier to
detect because they are more easily spotted.
Webbing moths,
on the other hand are the most difficult
to detect because they palpate
in what they are infesting.
The total life cycle of a moth from
egg to adult is about 30 days.
So if you haven't detected any clothing
moths for a 30 day period
you could be confident that you don't have an infestation
at that moment.
Anyone with a significant wardrobe
should take proactive steps in protecting
their wardrobe against clothing moths.
Moth prevention can really be thought
of in three basic categories:
The physical protection of the garments themselves,
closet hygiene,
and then garment activity.
This needs to be paired
with the professional moth detection solution
to quickly identify problems
if they do occur.
First is physical protection.
Items that you wear frequently say more
than once a month aren't going
to be something that are going to fall victim to
clothing moths.
But those items that you have
and long term storage
or aren't pulling out of the closet very frequently
or have stacked in a corner,
those are the items that moths
are going to go after first.
For this reason it is essential
to store infrequently worn
or out of season garments
and our Hanger Project luxury
garment bag.
Since our Kirby Allison garment bags
are constructed from an 8 1/2 oz.
cotton twill,
not only do they allow the garment to breathe,
but it also provides a bulletproof protection
against moths. since moths
don't eat cotton.
One of the features of our luxury garment bags
is that we actually use buttonholes
at the top for the closure.
Now this is deliberate because
it allows the garment bag to seal
on the hanger
and just eliminates one other
point of entry that a moth could possibly
penetrate the garment bag through.
Our garment bags also feature at two
and a half inch gusset that
is fully fused to give the bag structure.
So it's not going to collapse onto the
garment itself
and we have a convenient see-through window
that allows you to see into the bag
to easily identify what's being stored.
Or you can use this to store your
business card if you're traveling,
or I even sometimes
will label what's in the bag
right here. Next we have our luxury
sweaters storage box.
This box is constructed from a thick cardboard.
Now sweater boxes aren't bullet proof
protection,
but if you're really good about making
sure they're sealed,
or maybe have a few things sitting on top of
them, then the side
barrier is going to seal against
the lid
and provide a nice barrier.
Dirty soiled clothing that is
allowed to sit for over 30 days
can become a target.
Frequently remove any dirty clothes
from your closet.
Also make a point to vacuum
your closet regularly
and use the extender to clean corners
which can accumulate dust
and it might be a touch extreme to even
have a hospital grade HEPA air filter
in my closet, but anything
I can do to keep the environment as clean
as possible is going to help provide
that added protection against clothes
moths.
Lastly be sure to close your door
and turn off the lights whenever you're not in
your closet.
I do this not only because it's just one
additional barrier against clothes moths
but it also protects my wardrobe against
its second greatest risk,
which is my children.
And lastly, you can protect your wardrobe
just by actively rotating
and wearing your wardrobe.
Moths are very fragile,
and so any garment that you're wearing frequently,
you're not going to have to worry about.
And so I suggest any item
that you're not wearing frequently
but you don't have a garment storage bag,
pull that out of your closet
and just shake it every once in a while
to just provide a little bit of movement.
And this is our new Kirby Allison
Sovereign Grade Ebony Garment Brush,
and you can use this to just brush
the fabric to again
get anything that might be on top
of that fabric off.
And despite even your best efforts,
a moth infestation can still
occur.
That's why it's critical to also
actively monitor for moths using
a moth trap.
Here at Kirby Allison's Hanger Project,
we sell a professional-grade moth
trap from Insects Ltd..
This is the same moth trap that
a professional exterminator would be using
and we make this available to you through our
Web site. Now this uses a
professional grade pheromone,
which is essentially the same type of pheromone
you read in the back of Esquire magazine,
that's going to attract clothing moths.
Now what's incredible about this quality
in grade of pheromone is that the Mott's
will actually travel up to 25
to 30 feet to come to this.
It is essential to have a moth
trap in your closet to proactively
detect moth problems as soon as
possible.
The longer they go undetected,
the more damage they cause
the pheromones and our moth traps are
affected for up to 90 days.
So you want to make sure you write the date that you open
the pheromones on the moth trap
itself so you can ensure
that you're rotating these properly.
Place them in a dark far
corner of your closet,
the type of corner that's most susceptible to
moths, and of course make sure
you don't forget to check your moth trap frequently
so that you can see if you have any moths
on the trap itself.
I recently ran into a moth problem
and I was in denial as I saw moths
flying out of my closet that I
actually had a problem.
Had I been using a moth trap,
I would have known immediately that these were
in fact clothing moths that were eating
one of my favorite jackets.
One of the most frustrating things for me was
how difficult it was to find readily
available and practical information
about how to treat a moth infestation
in a large closet.
So if you're bringing anything into
your closet that has been stored somewhere
else or you don't know where it's been,
always inspect that piece for moth
eggs or larva.
If you want to be completely sure,
either steam that garment which will
immediately kill the moth regardless
at what life stage it's in,
or treat it with heat treatment.
Our ZappBug Heaters are essentially
an insulated oven that you
can put tremendous amount of clothing in,
zip closed,
turn on the heaters,
elevate that temperature to above 130
degrees Fahrenheit,
hold it there for 30 minutes,
and you can be confident that you're killing
absolutely any clothes moths
that anywhere in there.
And of course dry-cleaning will absolutely
kill anything that might be on the garment.
I hope you found this video on protecting your wardrobe
from clothes moths helpful
and don't end up in a situation like
I did where you pull one of your favorite
jackets out of your closet to find
that it had been eaten by clothes moths.
If you have any questions about anything
I discussed in this video,
or any products we recommended,
please feel free to ask them in the comments
section below.
I get back to all those questions personally.
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most extensive collection of luxury
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I'm Kirby Allison,
and thank you for joining me in my