How to remove BAD mothball smell from wool?

[Allan Hundeby]

Hey guys.  I bought some vintage wool hunting pants on ****.  To say I'm not pleased is an understatement:

The condition of the garments was superb, and they had NO odour on arrival.  BUT, I wore the pants and when they got moist from sweat, (hunting) they started to smell like mothballs - BAD!  So I tried washing them with Scent-Away detergent.  Saturating them in water made it worse!!  (I did some googling, and one person said that washing fibers that "have been" stored with mothballs RELEASES the mothball odour.)    :(     Now the whole house smells horrible, and people are getting headaches!  The clothes are 'airing' outside, but this isn't a permanent fix.

I'm not worried about shrinkage right now (I bought the pants huge), but I was hoping somebody would know what they may have been treated with (i.e. naphthalene/mothball/naphtha).  Several local drycleaners tell me they don't know of a way to do it effectively.

Should I try making the home-made scent-killer spray? (   http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=037927#000002   )  My H.S. Scent-A-Way spray seemed to work a bit on part of the wool, but it would be SO expensive.  What about "Dryell" home-dry-cleaning products, or even Febreeze?  Or, do I need something containing Triclosan-containing products?

Thanks.

[Caribou Hunter]

Try spraying them down with Dead Down Wind E3.

[Al Snow]

Hang them in direct sunlight for awhile.  That's always worked for me.

[Naked in NH]

Napthalene has a reasonable vapor pressure.  Heat might help drive out the smell.  I'd soak them in saturated baking soda solution then throw them in the dryer with a little extra baking soda when it's near dry.

Or try Al's suggestion (Hi Al).

[woodsman196]

I had a pair of European surplus pants that smelled like mothballs when I opened the box and they were bone dry. I washed them and as you said the smell only became worse. So I soaked them in the washing machine with sent-a-way detergent and a very liberal amount of oxy-clean (maybe a cup) for almost 48 hours. After that I let them air dry on the porch and then rewashed them as I do the rest of my hunting clothes. After they dried I did not notice anymore smell, but I have not washed them again only gotten them wet from dew and other ground moister.


Not to hijack your thread maybe it should be its own, but does anyone wash their wool often as a method of sent control, or do you use cover scents.

[Naked in NH]

...or just put them in the dryer as is and see what happens first.

[DarkeGreen]

"How to remove BAD mothball smell?"

First you spread their little legs...

[Huntschool]

My experience has been with baking soda.  Soak in baking soda water over night, at least, then wash.  Spin dry in washer and hang in sunlight in open air.  Repeat process about two or three times and you should have it.

Best of luck

[Allan Hundeby]

Wow, thaks for all your quick replies.  Keep 'em comin'.

Woodsman, I wash my gear that has touched my skin (my underwear, X-Scent long underwear, X-Scent gloves, wool and X-Scent socks, and headnet) after every hunt.  My outer layers I usually wash after several hunts - or if I've really sweated in them.

[Stone Knife]

My wife said to put them in the freezer. She said you can do it with shoes to get the stink out of them. If that don't work have them dry cleaned.

[Flesner]

I had some surplus wool that had mothball smell.
I dumped a box of baking soda on them and rubbed it in as best I could. then I hung them out in the sun for a few days.
That did it.

Next time I washed them there was no mothball smell.

[Al Snow]

Hi, Pabs!  Hope all is well in your neck of the woods.

[Allan Hundeby]

Update:

I had thrown in my socks/undergarments with the pants, too, (so they stank) so I air-dried all the stuff in the sun today after using Febreeze on everything except for using H.S. Scent-A-Way on two socks.  They certainly dried, and on most items it was hard to detect the smell.     The polypropelene underwear had the most residual scent next to the wool pants.  The X-Scent (silver) garments were scent-free - when DRY, that is.

So I soaked undergarments in the washine machine to test them.  I also put vinegar... and then baking soda, and let them sit.

They smell again.

It's not as bad as before, but I've got to assume I'll be sweating in them, and they'll get wet, therefore "releasing" this smell.

 :(

Any thoughts?

[Naked in NH]

Skip the vinegar.  Just baking soda.  All the vinegar is going to do is destroy the baking soda.

Dryer.  Baking soda.

[Allan Hundeby]

Update:
It's been awhile (a year I guess), and just wanted to let those interested know:

I tried all the remedies suggested here.  Nothing worked.  So after hanging these pants outside on the line OVER THE WHOLE SASKATCHEWAN WINTER... they still had a bit of the mothball smell!  I then threw them in the pond in front of the house --yeah the one with lots of algae and weeds and frogs.  After only a couple days, I took them out, rinsed them off, and they smelled like...

...a pond.

After that, one washing with scent-free detergent got rid of all the napthalene smell (and the pond smell).  I'm guessing all the little natural bacteria did the trick better than any man-made products.

I'm happy!

[Curtiss Cardinal]

See if there is an Ozone Scent removal place in your town. They treat it for an hour and it's completely scent free. than after you've done that......
Don't use mothballs use red cedar shavings.

[Stone Knife]

Good thing to know.

[Allan Hundeby]

Cool, Thanks!

[oops sorry]

The only sure way that I know of is dry-cleaning. That isn't what you wanted to know, I imagine. The dry-cleaning smell will ultimately come out with airing.

[ChuckC]

Put em in a bag with an open can of sardines.  Won't notice the mothball small after that.
   
ChuckC