Page 27 - Mothmageddon

JONATHAN BERLIAND & GRAHAM WARREN
This has raised concerns the moths will damage historic furnishings and art textiles.
One Peer, Lord Vaux of Harrowden, voiced concern that his clothes would be shredded by the pesky creatures.
In a speech to the House of Lords, Lord Vaux said, “The mice I can cope with – indeed there are a couple that have almost become personal friends but the moths! Please forgive me for the image that I may be about to put into your Lordships’ minds but I am starting to worry that if I sit still for too long in this Chamber I’ll stand up to discover my clothes have been turned into lace.”9
Nearly 20,000 moths were ‘detected’ in Parliament in 2017, up from 11,855 in 2010. In 2016, Parliament spent £8,924 on moth deterrents and the authorities have installed 729 moth monitoring devices across the Parliamentary estate to assess the scale of the problem, which could be far more than 20,000 moths!
The Parliamentary authorities said: “The clothes moths population
needs to be controlled to prevent damage to furnishings, including
historic Pugin furnishings in the Palace of Westminster, and textiles.”
9 ‘Palace of Westminster: Restoration and Renewal’, House of Lords Hansard, https://hansard.parliament.uk, February 6, 2018
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