I’m very new to fly tying and fly fishing for that matter, anyway I have a question on the storage of feathers. I have some hen hackle from Whiting (sorry Denny, this was before I knew you and by the way Dad does remember you from high school)that I have always left in the original packages, but after reading the posting on bugs, I decide to move them to plastic contains with moth cyrstals in them. My question is: is there any thing else that a person should keep in mind when storing materials? do you have to worry about feathers, skins or anything else drying out or becoming brittle?
Thanks
Dave
Most skins have enough oil remaining in them to avoid drying out, even tanned hides will remain supple for many years. The biggest issue is bugs.
Moth Crystals are a pain in the rear as well, their odor is less than pleasant, and when handling materials you can inadvertantly brush some in your eyes. I like incense cedar better, it has a pleasant odor which will keep you in good standing with your spouse. It repells bugs as well as moth crystals and you can buy thin slats (used for closet lining) from any hardware store - cut them to length and line the drawer bottoms with them.
Hitting them with a belt sander will restore the odor after you’ve used them for a year or more, so a small investment will last an awful long time.
As your material stash grows moth balls will become a larger issue, as you will be adding more to cover your new acquisitions - at some point you’ll be banished to the garage.
KB
i have some capes that are over 25 years old and they are stored in the original packaging and then in those rubbermaid storage boxes. I do not use cedar or moth ball and have had no problems with bug or anything else in over 27 years of tying.
Forget the ceder, no-pest strips, dog collars, freezing, microwave and all the other old wives tales used supposidly keep bugs out of your material. Do what museums do with priceless pelts of birds and animals. Use moth balls or crystals with PARADICHLOROBENZINE as the active ingrediant. It kills bugs and eggs.
We go over this topic on a regular basis and some keep giving this usless advice about keeping material.
PARADICHLOROBENZINE is king when it comes to bug prevention. Bugs don’t come near the stuff.
Bugless for over 40 years,
fishbum
I agree with Fishbum. Stick with the really proved technique and stop looking for the “almost” alternatives.
I recently posted about bugs. I too thought cedar and cloves would do the trick and keep bugs out. My material were in resealable packages. They were also stored in air tight plastic tubs in my house on shelves in a closet. Before we sold our house I refreshed the cedar and cloves and stored all the plastic tubs in heavy moving boxes sealed all along the perimeter with heavy-duty sealing tape. When I opened the boxes a few months later several of my capes were infested with some pretty big bugs (some as long as approx 1/2"). I froze ALL my materials for several weeks and washed all my capes and hids in Woolite and placed them in new bags. I then placed all my materials including synthetics in plastic are tight containers. I also placed moth balls in small containers which I placed holes in the top of the lids so they don’t touch the materials and keep the dust contained to eventually dessolve. While I would love to use natural means like cedar and other deterrants, they don’t work!
My experiences are almost identical. I dislike the smell of moth balls so much that I would probably give up fly tying if I had to use them. I rely mainly on zip-lock bags for storage. Virtually all of my materials have come from fly shops or fly tying material dealers. I don’t harvest road kill or get my materials from hunters. I have had great results using the zip-lock bags. Like Normand, I also have been doing this for close to thirty years.
The big bugs may very well be carpet beetles. FISHBUM is right. Paradichlorobenzene is the thing to use. Ice Crystals by Enos is a great product. The smell is not as bad as Napthalene, traditional both ball product. Sprinkle the crystals liberally in your boxes and you eliminate a large potential for bugs. If there is an infestation dump a whole can of Ice Crystals in the box and seal it to kill the bugs.
Cable:
Here is the link to the aforementioned TyroneFly post:
http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=21434
Listen to the boys and save the cloves for the ham and the cedar for the cigars.
Just to reaffirm some info on the stinky stuff; Paradichlorobenzene AKA Moth CRYSTALS KILLS various critters and the fear of death repels them too!
1,4-Dichlorobenzene usually found in Moth BALLS is a repellent but I’m not as positive it kills as many critters as the crystals. It is better suited as a repellent than a killer.
BOTH are only effective when used in sealed containers like Zip Lock bags or Rubbermaid containers.
As far as the smell goes; did you really think this fly tying thing was going to be a nice clean and happy smelling hobby?
Bam,
The moth balls I am using has Paradichlorobenzene as it #1 active ingredient. I wanted to be certain I can repel and kill any eggs and pest that survived the freeze as well as future attacks. The smell reminds of my childhood when I watched the fly tyers at the SF Sports and Boat show in the 60’s.
I little off topic but what would you do about protecting material not in storage containers. I am lucky to have a complete bedroom in the house that has been converted into a tying room and all my materials are hung up in either their original packaging or in the case of some of my acquired materials from hunters or furriers in plastic zip lock bags and all hanging from one of the peg boards around the room. This has made it easier to find materials then sorting through boxes of assorted feathers, chenille etc.
While I do make sure all none store bought materials are first frozen for 3 months left out for 2 or so weeks then refrozen for another 3 months or longer. I am still am concerned about bugs getting into my materials. I also have a cat that gives me further pause of it bringing some type of pest back to the house when it goes to the vet. Its an indoor cat so no real concern about it bringing something into the house from outside. I also keep the cat locked out of the room itself.
Is there more I can do to protect the materials since they are not in any type of bin and are just in their individual plastic bags?
hikepat,
I recall reading that Ronn Lucas uses a bug bomb in his material storage room from time to time. May be you can contact him for more details.
Hikepat, You have a whole bedroom set aside for tying ??? :shock: 
Wow, man. You’re my hero…really…ModocDan
It conjures up good memories for me too!
BTW - What brand of moth balls did you buy? I never buy the balls just the crystals so the “ingredients” info I posted was from web sources not the side of the box.
Thanks for the heads up!
Pat:
You’re luckier than me; I have to tie in the UNHEATED garage!
:shock:
If I was you I’d just dump some moth crystals in your Zip Lock bags; maybe a tablespoon or so. That should be plenty for such a small area. I wouldn’t worry too much about small bags of natural dubbing. It’s the expensive hackle capes, saddles and feathers that will break the bank if the bugs get them.
I also HEARTILY recommend buying a large Rubbermaid container and using it for an isolation container; AKA “The Chamber of Death”! Put ALL new natural skins; pelts, feathers from hunters or roadkill in that container with a LOAD of moth crystals. Leave them in isolation for AT LEAST a week before adding them to the rest of your inventory.
You will NEVER be sorry if you do that. I wouldn’t bank on freezing or microwaving to accomplish the same thing.
Enoz Para Moth Balls. They are sold at Home Depot and Orchard Supply Hardware in my area (San Jose, CA).
I would rather start tying with all synthetics than smell moth balls for 10 seconds. I got a pheasant skin from a buddy that had been mothballed and I had to air it out in the garage for a month before freezing it for a month and then bringing it into the house. That stuff is nasty.
Very interesting! I guess the supermarket I buy mine at only stocks the “classic” variety; I just checked the boxes I have and they are labeled Enoz “Old Fashioned” Moth Balls and are naphthalene.
Thanks for the education! I may have to look for those since the balls are neater than the crystals.