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UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
Agricultural Marketing Service 
Marketing Research Division 
\( PROTECTING STORED FURS FROM INSECTS|)¥ 
Prepared by 
Biological Sciences Branch 
Stored=Product Insects Section 
Requests for information regarding methods for storing furs and fur 
garments during the summer are often received by the Department of 
Agriculturee Publications containing this information have long been out 
of print. Therefore, it seems desirable to provide the following infor- 
mation on the subject, derived from earlier publications. 
Cold Storage Vaults 
Fur storage firms carefully inspect furs received for storage and 
usually treat them with compressed air and suction or comb and beat them 
before placing them in cold storage. This treatment removes or kills 
the eggs or larvae of the clothes moth that may be in the furs. 
Cold storage has been utilized for the protection of furs for many 
years. According to Back and ewes A "one of the best assets of cold 
storage control is that it is absolutely safe. Cold storage overrides 
the human tendency to carelessness. Once a valuable fur is in storage 
at 0° to 2° F. no insect will injure it .. . as long as such a temper- 
ature is maintained no injury can occur. 
"If storage concerns aim at the destruction of clothes moths in 
articles entrusted to them, as well as the protection from injury of these 
articles during the period of storage, it is recommended that.articles be 
exposed for a short period to a rather low temperature before they are 
placed permanently at 0° F. to 29 F, The maintenance of a temperature 
lower than 0° to 2° F, is needless and.a wasteful expense. 
"Clothes moth larvae can withstand prolonged storage at temperatures 
ranging from 2° to 45° F, for longer periods than that for which the 
majority of articles are refrigerated. Thus wellegrown larvae of the web- 
bing clothes moth in fur and wool were held in commercial cold storage at 
a temperature said to fluctuate between 20 to 80 F., but held mostly at 
1/ Back, E. Ae, and Cotton, R. T. Effect of Cold Storage Upon Clothes 
Moths. Refrigerating Engineering 13 (12): 365. 1927. 
Agriculture-Washington June 1955 
