Pest control

I read with fear and trepidation the webpage Bonny sent me about carpet beetles. I immediately bundled up the Sempervirens sweater (on the needles) and all associated yarn into a large ziploc bag and stuffed it into my chest freezer. I was relieved that the freezer isn't completely full, as it was around the holidays. Between all the cookies that came out of the freezer and a concerted effort to eat from the freezer in the new year, we have been chipping away at some of that stuff.

I decided I might need to bag all the yarn in my living room (at least) - which is mostly the yarn in the sock yarn cabinet - and ordered more 2-gallon ziplocs. These are such a great size, but hard to find in stores.

In the meantime, I puttered about, tidying up a bit. I ended up dumping out this (wool) basket that holds my interchangeable needle parts...

... and there were some bug parts in the bottom. We inspected them. They seemed like stinkbug parts. Stinkbugs don't eat wool. We see them occasionally in the house, but have never had anything like an infestation (like other people I know). I didn't worry too much. There was no sign of damage to the basket itself. Here are the bug parts - it's the top one that really looks like a stinkbug head (I think):

I kept musing. I remembered that there is actually ANOTHER project in the basket that I had Sempervirens in: the Merida mittens I started at KDO last September.  I'm not sure if I'm going to complete them with the yarn I have. Also, the gauge is uncomfortably tight to knit, so there's that. I figured I'd better freeze that yarn, too. I hauled the basket into the kitchen and started going through it.

I wondered if the antique spindle I bought at Lowell National Historical Park might be the problem. It's in the basket, but it has cotton yarn on it, not wool. I tossed it just in case (sorry, no photo - because I tossed it!). Then I got rid of the plastic bag I keep in the bottom of the basket to prevent snagging. I found a little paper notebook I sometimes take notes on, and I started flipping through the pages to see what was in it. Luckily I was doing this at the kitchen counter, because SOMETHING FELL OUT OF IT. I peered. I wondered if it was a beetle. I went to get Sharon so she could weigh in. And when we got back to the kitchen, IT WAS CRAWLING (slowly).

Yikes! I grabbed some clear shipping tape and a piece of card stock and captured it for closer study. I was convinced that this is a carpet beetle. Do you agree?

I went out to look at the carpet in the living room. We have a vinyl floor with only an area rug. I pulled up the edges and looked closely, using my portable Ott light to get a good view. I definitely saw hollowed-out corpses of things that look like my crawly buddy. Out came the vacuum!

Sharon, Boy 2, and I tackled the rug (Boy 1 was away). We got all the attachments and vacuumed the floor underneath and the back side of the rug itself thoroughly, as well as the top, of course. Sharon said "I don't understand why they would like our carpet... it's not like it's wool."

But... surprise! I pointed at the exposed label:

I taped one of the hollow corpses to my card stock, as well. Here they both are in the light of day.

Corpse is on left, and the crawly guy (who is now, of course, also a corpse) is on the right.

I ended up putting the entire basket in the freezer, along with the mitten project. I also noted that my lazy kate was on the floor near all this action, and it had a full bobbin of Manx Loaghtan singles on it (a wool breed). The wool wasn't touching the floor, but it was close. I acted cautiously and wound it onto a plastic storage bobbin, which also went into the freezer. I had to use my one remaining Ziploc XXL bag (which I believe is something like 20 gallons) for the basket, and I put everything else back into the basket in the freezer.

I did not vacuum the basket before freezing it, but I will do that when it comes out. And I will probably refreeze it and vacuum a second time just to be safe.

I'm left wondering if I should not keep yarn and knitting projects in my beautiful baskets. I bet you have one of these, too - many knitters do. I love it. But clearly beetles can crawl through it.

I'll be vigilant about vacuuming underneath the carpet from now on. Honestly, I haven't done it in a long time, because vacuuming is one of my boys' chores... and they don't always do an A+ job. They usually do a B- or C+ job, but that is a job I don't have to do, so usually I live with it. No more.

I bagged all the yarn in my sock yarn cabinet yesterday, but I think I went a bit overboard. Bugs like dark, dirty places. This cabinet has glass fronts, so light gets in... and it has doors, so dust and dirt DON'T get in. The lowest cabinet is not right on the floor. It's pretty great and I love being able to see my sock yarn in the living room all the time. But as of last night, everything in it is bagged. Here's a photo I took a couple weeks ago that shows the bottom 3 sections of the cabinet (there is a 4th one above). The doors are open for the photo, to avoid glare. You can see that it sits off the ground quite a bit.

And I'm going to bag my handspun skeins, which sit in baskets (not on the floor) in a room that isn't completely dark but doesn't get a lot of light, either. An ounce of prevention, right?

I hope this solves the problem, but I'll be very observant in the future.