Clothes and Clothes Moths

 Clothes moths have been with us for a very long time.  They are mentioned in the Bible.  The New Testament urges readers to store up treasures in heaven rather than on earth, preferring a place where thieves cannot break in and steal, and where moths cannot get in and munch holes in the woolens (I'm paraphrasing here).

It's actually not the moth itself but the worm, the larval form, that eats your woolens.  Moths lay eggs in what seems a good place, on your sweater shelf, and the eggs hatch into worms.  The moths themselves are very adept at eluding being swatted.  A human can chase a moth for quite a while, clapping her hands together where the moth was a second ago, without success.  (Handy household tip:  Use a cat.  A cat's reflexes are faster than yours.  Pick up Tabby and aim her at the moth.)

Medieval people, like biblical and modern people, had trouble with clothes moths.  Whereas probably the majority of our modern clothing is cotton or synthetic (polyester, nylon, etc.), the default fabric for medieval people was wool.  The moths thought that was great (well, moths don't think anything, but you know what I mean).  Since most medieval people only had two outfits at any one time, one to wear and one to wash (assuming they didn't just have one), the moths didn't have many opportunities in everyday wear, but a heavier (or fancier) outfit, or a winter cloak, or blankets, anything stored away in a chest in warm weather, might well be full of holes when brought out.

We have moth balls that can be put among the woolens, heavy-duty chemicals that were unknown in the Middle Ages (and are probably carcinogenic, but we needn't go into that now).  We have cedar chests that the moths really do not like.  There is no evidence one way or the other that medieval people knew (or didn't) of the value of cedar chests.  But for most people in the Middle Ages a storage chest would not be lined with nice pieces of cedar, instead being something fairly rough made of plain wood.  We can (and should) take our woolens outdoors in very cold weather, hang them up, and brush them, getting rid of moth eggs and killing them with cold, but this doesn't help when the woolens are being nibbled in the summer.

One medieval response was to try to find cloth that moths wouldn't eat.  Those who could afford it loved silk (on which see more here).  Clothes moths won't touch silk, plus it takes dye well and is smooth and gentle on your skin, unlike wool (unless very carefully prepared).  It was however outrageously expensive.  Silk worms (look! a worm related to cloth! but good this time! let's not get into that now) only became widely known and raised in the West at the end of the Middle Ages, so silk needed to be imported from China via the long, long land route across central Asia (the Silk Road, of which you may have heard).

Cotton first started appearing in Europe with any regularity in the late twelfth or thirteenth century.  It too was a luxury fabric, but not nearly as expensive, because it could be grown (rather than harvested from cocoons, a long and tedious process) and did not have to travel nearly as far.  Clothes moths won't touch cotton either.  But good old wool, with the issue of moths, remained the standard.

© C. Dale Brittain 2023E

For more on life in the Middle Ages, see my ebook, Positively Medieval, available from Amazon and other ebook retailers.  Also available in paperback!