A must read if your layout in exposed to Moths

A must read if your layout is exposed to Moths

Well I thought I would share this with people if they live in a moth prone area. In some ways I am almost laughing about it though...

A few years ago I had purchased a really nice set of I believe camel hair paint brushes. About 15 of them came in the set and boy I was proud of them! Any you can guess it... moths or some sort of other insect came by and sure enough they had a snack on all of them. I knew about this a couple of weeks ago but just now sharing because those *** bleeps *** came back for something else!

I was just looking at some scenery areas on my layout. Gee, I think I might be missing something here. Maybe not... so I looked in another area where I new the items were supposed to be. Low a behold ... every inch of my Woodland Scenics field grass has been reduced to N-scale saw dust piles!!! Really cool I guess if I was modeling a saw mill...

Just thought I should share so people could be aware. Also other than installing moth balls on the layout how can I prevent this from happening in the future?

Mr X

(Now you can laugh)

 

I'm not laughing. Moths and other vermin can completely destroy any scenery on a layout easily. At one location our club layout was at, we had a mouse infestation that loved to eat the trees on the layout and then leave us "little presents" all over the place.:angry:

I would definitely try at least moth crystals, after being tested on an area of the layout, or you can just sprinkle some onto some carpet squares and place around the layout/workbench when you're not there. The crystals dissolve and leave the chemical behind as a long term deterent to futher infestation. There is a smell that lingers for a few days but then it gets less and less. Another thing, if you have dogs that come and go outside, they can bring in fleas that can get into the carpet and start laying eggs that can be hard to eliminate. Moth crystals can kill these as well, without having to buy expensive flea sprays. Learned this from an agricultural agent many years ago on the Gulf Coast, when I lived there.

 

Wish I would have posted this last year when we spent $400 on getting a flea problem taken care of that one of our cats caused.

For the mice problem - go with poison in the boxes - I hate to kill any animals and it was probably the darn moth that I captured in the garage and let go outside that ate everything - but the poison in the boxes for mice causes them the dehydrate and go outside and look for water.

Mr X

 

A bigger issue is that the moths may have laid eggs on the layout. This could lead to some pretty huge N scale snakes crawling around and eating even more stuff.

BTW- many people use lots of elmers white glue on their layouts. It does work great. I prefer matte medium because it is not organic and can't become bug food.

 

Another source of moths and larvae is the untreated peppergrass that comes from craft stores.

 

Why not try pine or cedar chunks??? Could even shape them to look like logs and have them all over.

 

I am not overly sure if cedar will work in all cases. I cannot remember where I got them from but a few years ago, I got some wooden cedar disks. They were about 3 inches in diameter and about half an inch thick and had a hole in the middle and they had no finish. I believe they were meant to go on hangers in the closet. They did okay but did not stop everything. They did smell good for a while though. I had a couple disks in the garage where the railroad is located already. If it truly is a deterrent, I just think for model railroading purposes you would need so much of it would be impractical. Just my thought...

Other than the moth balls/crystal idea that had been presented before, is there any way to treat natural vegetation for use as scenery with out overly fearing pests? Like dipping them in something – coating it with something – etc.

Mr X

 

I place moth balls around my basement to keep down the spider population. (They hate them) Never thought about actual moths harrassing me.

 

Sillystring-

You must have one heck of an Optivisor.

 

Moths don't eat anything, their larvae do.

 

Well,I have thought of this idea before,but it may be time to implement my plan.On the steel mill area on the club layout,we have joked about putting a bug zapper inside the blast furnace shop for the sound and light show that comes with frying a big sucker...might have to do that for real now...hmmm.

 

Well my wife was watching one of her shows the other day and low and behold they were discussing moths and a home made repellant that works. Or at least according to them it works. It would seem to me that it would be a lot safer than using chemicals and may even look good as scenery - I have yet to try it. Mix the following ingrediants, not sure in what quantities though:

20% Thyme
40% Peppermint
40% Rosemary
2 whole cloves

I "think" the show said to grind it into a powder but I ws not overly paying attention. Not sure what you are supposed to put it in in the closet to protect your clothes, but on a layout I think sprinkling it down as rough grass/bushes or something might look alright. Just thought I would share.

Mr X

 

I had never even considered this happening. Thanks for the heads-up.