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Moths eating shave brushes?

I went through a long period of not using most of my brushes (a period of depression made me drop most of my hobbies), so I'd been storing them in various bins and drawers for several years. Now that I'm getting back into the shaving hobby, I'm breaking out the ol' brush collection, and most of them are fine...except for three or so, which have started shedding like there's no tomorrow, one of which even had whole chunks of hair fall off the side. The one thing they also had in common is that they were covered in moth dust -- and I know we have moths, since my girlfriend's yarn collection got an unfortunate infestation a ways back and we haven't been able to get rid of it. The only thing I can conclude is that moths ate those brushes. Fortunately, I think the only one I cared about the moths got to was my Vie-Long El Toro Ganso, but it's rather unfortunate to realize that several of my shave brushes are pretty much dead at this point.

Has anyone else had a problem with moths and shave brushes?
 

ajkel64

Check Out Chick
Staff member
I have not thought about it. My unused brushes are stored in airtight containers. I suppose you could always re-knot them. The handles would still be okay.
 
I'm sorry!

Moths hate cedar, right?

From the Internet:
A relatively new, well-made cedar chest can protect from clothes moths for a while, as long as it is kept tightly closed and the items are not already infested when placed inside. Studies have suggested that even a new cedar chest kills only small clothes moth larvae, not larger larvae, eggs, or pupae.

And marthastewart.com
The Basics of Mothproofing . 1 of 1. Watch The Video ... The dark-colored heartwood of red cedar contains natural oils that kill clothes-moth larvae, but this alone won't protect clothing. It's not effective against carpet beetles, and, with moths, it kills only young larvae, not older ones or eggs. ...
 
The infestation is actually way more extensive than I thought. I'm trying cleaning my entire collection with a stronger vinegar/water solution than you'd normally use for cleaning brushes. (1:1 vinegar:water for half an hour...supposedly works for de-mothing woolens, hopefully will work for shave brushes.) I'm a little anxious about how strong the solution is and how long I'm soaking, but it's better than having my entire collection eaten by moths.
 
Sorry to hear about it, BTW. Vinegar is a fairly weak acid, and hair is pretty tough.

Best of luck with it. Post back if that strong of a mix seems to cause bad effects, or if it works well for that matter too.
 
The first round of brushes seem to have taken the vinegar soak fine; I'm not sure if there'll be any long-term effects, of course, but they're only shedding as badly as they were going into it, which, apart from about three of them, seems to be minimal, fortunately. The El Toro Ganso is borderline, and a WSP brush and a vintage Gillette travel brush are pretty much dead. The poor Gillette took it especially bad, shedding whole clumps of hair at a time. I was really scared for my Kent B&B LE 08, since that's not replaceable, but it seems to be fine.

I don't think the moths got to my main Simpson's collection, which is in a plastic bin, but I'm going to soak those tomorrow too, to be on the safe side.
 
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