Moths and Cloths

Greenbottle flies like to try to eat defenseless sheep before their wool is sheared off.  Most moths, however, go after wool after it’s made into your favorite sweater.

Maybe these moths are just dizzy from all that circling.  What other reason could they have for eating someone else’s hair?  They’ve never told us, but keep your woolen sweaters, scarves and mittens far, far away from moths!

We get our wool from sheep.  First, the sheep gets a haircut and the sheared wool is cleaned.  Any bugs that live in the warm, dense wool must bid their home goodbye!  The, the wool is dyed and carded or brushed flat in a sliver.  The slivers are rolled into a cord, or yarn, and eventually weaved into a cloth or knitted into a sweater.  Apparently, moths think that all this work is done just so they can have a nice pretty sweater for dinner.  To protect your clothes from moths, place some cedar chips or a few mothballs in your closet. Moths, and most humans can’t stand the smell!

Going to the Moon!

Moths are known by the “circling” patterns they make as they fly, but the only time they do so is when we can see them.  Most of the time they fly in a straight line, guided by the light of the moon. 

However, when they see our lights, they get confused by these impostor moons, and try to switch course, which causes them to fly in circles.  You can try to confuse moths even further by flashing two flashlights on and off, onte at a time.  If you succeed in tricking the poor moth, you’ll see it flying back and forth from one flashlight to the other.

Why Wool is Warm

Did You Know:  Why do we make our warmest clothes out of wool?  Because it works like an insulator:  it keeps your body heat inside your cothes and does not allow it to escape.  But did you also know that wool keeps the heat out too?  The principle is the same; it does not allow heat to cross through, whether inside or out.