12 BULLETIN 1051, IT. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



properly. Since it is the odor of red cedar which is effective against 

 moths it is recommended that in using cedar chests for the protection 

 of clothing, fabrics, and furs, special care should be taken to prevent 

 undue escape of the aroma from the chests. The chests should re- 

 main tightly closed except when clothing is being removed or placed 

 in them, and this procedure should be accomplished as rapidly as 

 possible. Aside from their value in killing moths, cedar chests are 

 so tightly constructed that adult moths can not gain access to them 

 except when they are open. This is not true of the average trunk or 

 other receptacle in which clothing is stored. 



Cedar chests exert no noticeable effect upon the adult moth or 

 miller, the parent insect, which does no damage to clothing but which 

 may lay eggs from which hatch the destructive larvae, or worms. 

 Moths that run or fly into chests, when open, may live as long as two 

 weeks or even a month, and lay many fertile eggs. 



Further, cedar chests are not effective against eggs, no matter 

 whether the eggs are laid outside of the chest and accidentally intro- 

 duced with the clothing, or whether they are laid in the chest itself. 

 This is true regardless of the age of the eggs when they are subjected 

 to the action of the chest. Imprisonment of adult moths and eggs in 

 a cedar chest, however, is not an important consideration since the 

 young larvse promptly succumb to the effect of the chest and neither 

 the moth nor the egg eats. However, cedar chests can not be 

 depended upon to kill larvse after they are 3 or 4 months 

 old, or are from one-half to full grown. Some of the half to full- 

 grown larvae placed in chests have died, but their death may have been 

 due to a normal mortality. The practical consideration is that many 

 of them were not killed, but continued their development and matured 

 as adults. These larger larvse are capable of doing considerable 

 damage within the chests though it is believed that their activities are 

 somewhat retarded by the effect of the chests. The older the larvse 

 when they enter the chest the more resistant they are to this, until 

 finally an age or size, not easily defined, is attained when larvse are 

 capable of withstanding chests and continue their feeding and 

 development. 



Cedar chests do kill young larvce. — Larvse hatching from eggs 

 within the chests die in most instances within two or three days, 

 and practically all die within two weeks. Larvse hatching from eggs 

 outside the chests and introduced into them in clothing do not die so 

 quickly as larvse hatching inside the chests because they are older, 

 but the majority of such larvse, which soon show a tendency not to 

 feed, die during the first and second weeks, although some may live 

 longer. Two larvse, 2 days old when placed in a chest, lived for 

 about 35 days ; such resistance, however, is the exception rather than 

 the rule. 



It is important that articles intended for storage in cedar chests 

 should be most painstakingly cleaned, beaten, brushed, and sunned 

 whenever practicable to remove or kill as many of the moth eggs 

 and larvse as possible. Special attention should be given to brush- 

 ing all seams, creases, and pockets. Clothing thoroughly brushed 

 and sunned should harbor none of the larger or older moth larvse 

 and very few, if any, eggs and young larvse. Such clothing if stored 

 at once in good cedar chests should be protected from moth ravages, 



