Let's discuss the clothes moth

I have a lamb skin I bought in Australia during a port call, back when I was in the Navy. Some years later, it experienced an outbreak of clothes moths, lots of cocoons on the hairs. That had never happened before. I researched what to do about it, and found out that a day or two of freezing will kill the cocoons -- either outside on a subfreezing day, or in the freezer.

Well, that was fine where I lived then. But in the Dominican Repermies, it doesn't freeze, and I do not have plans to put in a freezer. Once I bring this lamb skin out of storage and down to my place -- along with several other wool items -- I am concerned whether the moths will outbreak again. I don't want to use toxic gick (camphor mothballs).

I have heard of a plant called southernwood (Artemisia abrotanum), which has traditionally been used in place of mothballs. I do not know whether it will grow successfully in that tropical climate, though, since it is native to southern Europe. I am looking for ideas about moth prevention in woolens in the tropics.

I don't know if things like artemisia will be fully effective. After a few bad experience with moths getting into beloved woolen items during summer storage, I started using mothballs. But recently I got a product I like for summer storage, airtight huge zipper bags that you pump the air out of. It won't keep moths out during usage season, but that seems to be less of a problem for me.

Cedar wood balls are said to be moth repellants.

I never liked using mothballs because you can never get the smell out of your clothes, might as well let the moths have it.  Cedar is the best way to go-for me personally.

We have eastern red cedars growing on our place. We don't like to cut them because they are slow-growing, but when one does need to come down, my husband cuts 1-inch slices from the trunk and I use those in my woolens, and also in the livestock and pet feed to deter pantry moths! It works very well.

I lined a small closet with Cedar for such things.  Of course, then both of my arms broke out in hives.  I seem to be allergic.   It turned out the problem was with the Cedar dust.

It's my understanding that, at least in wool, the moths are not so much after the wool proteins but the sweat and lanolin. Raven, is that true? Anyway, I put cedar or dryer sheets in my bags of fiber and with stored clothes. Make sure your clothing items are clean before they are stored.
Mothballs are quite toxic. Dryer sheets work just as well as mothballs, are probably far less toxic and the smell comes out. So far so good. I haven't had any problem with moths.

Tansy has long been used to ward off a fair number of bugs. I wonder if it would work, in this application?

I use cedar in our closet and it seems to work even despite the gorgeous little gold moths I do see flitting around sometimes. I have a few cedar blocks screwed into hooks that hang on our clothing bar, and I made a spray with water and cedar essential oil that I spray in there occasionally and spray generously on everything wool in our house (my son is in a Waldorf school so we have lots of wool roving and yarn and such around for crafting).

Moths!  ug.  That's an evil word.

Having suffered from a serious moth infestation many years back, I've learned a lot about moths.

The casing moth is our local nasty.  The caterpillars make a cocoon they carry around with them and live in like a snail lives inside its shell.  Once this casing is strong enough, there's very little that can harm the moth.  We had lots to experiment and none of the strong chemicals would touch them.  A mixture of borax and DE (about 50/50) was able to kill off many of the adults and stunt their growth, but enough were able to grow to adulthood and reproduce.  

Borax and DE works well on baby moths, so it's a great prevention trick.

Mostly we tossed everything that showed the smallest signs of moth damage.  Some of the heirlooms were treated with a soak in a borax solution followed by excessive hours in the full sunlight.  Things that were too large to treat this way, like the massive floor rug, we took to the cleaners to be professionally frozen (the home freezer can't get low enough to kill the eggs) for 4 weeks, then cleaned, then frozen again in case any of the eggs survived.  When I brought it home, I treated it with sunlight and lay a fine layer of DE and borax down underneath it and sprayed it with a Borax solution.  

From there, we keep each wool item in isolation and inspect them at least twice a year.  Air them out in the sunlight each spring before storing them again.  

But prevention is the key to success with moths.  They are a lot like dealing with rats.  If they can smell the food and find a place that is hidden, then there is no chance of stopping them.  

Having fewer wool items in the house, making sure the wool item spends time in the sunlight - airing as they used to call it - at least every two months (we don't put furniture on top of the wool rugs anymore), and using fullers earth (DE) and borax (where humans aren't going to come in daily contact with it as it is a biocide) for storage are all good steps.  Using those little moth traps to tell if there is a problem (and replacing them annually) is a great step too.

Blocking the smell with cedar and essential oils works to some degree.  Making sure the wool is washed and completely dry before storage is also a big step towards stopping the moths from smelling their food.

The biggest thing for me is having fewer, but better quality wool items in the house so that I can actually use them all instead of stashing they away for 'best'.