Attention woolie mamas:

Smallllmin

Coming off the recent bedbug incident, I swore off buying used or anything from anyone on the B/S/T boards.
Before that, however, I ordered a Sloomb diaper cover to try out wool for the first time.
I received it today.

So, how do you sanitize wool?
I used bleach on the two used dipes I've ever bought.
Obviously you can't bleach wool.
I heard you can bring water to an almost-boil, take the pot off the heat (so no agitating bubbles will form), and stick the wool in and leave it there until it cools.

Thoughts?

freezorburn

I have an idea but it's crazy late here. Promise to answer tomorrow.

MapleMomma

I have zero idea, but I did receive this super wool cover in the mail today!
I promptly bought some lanolin and wool wash. Thanks so much! I'll report back with pictures!

And it has inspired me to get brave enough to order a few newborn covers. (I ordered 3, and have 12 NB predolds)

Smallllmin

MapleMomma said:

I have zero idea, but I did receive this super wool cover in the mail today! I promptly bought some lanolin and wool wash. Thanks so much! I'll report back with pictures! And it has inspired me to get brave enough to order a few newborn covers. (I ordered 3, and have 12 NB predolds)

Yay! I'm so glad!
I have to buy some lanolin too. My cover came with Sloomb cube samples and they smell amazing

What kind of covers did you get?

MapleMomma

I got two rumparooz (preppy plaid and Quinn) and an imagine hook & loop (elephants)

My newborn stash is out of control! But I'm trying a little of everything. I literally now have enough for 62 changes. Um... What happened to 36?

My OS stash has 36 (including grovia hybrids which could be double used). I may add prefolds/covers to the OS stash in the future.

Smallllmin

MapleMomma said:

I got two rumparooz (preppy plaid and Quinn) and an imagine hook & loop (elephants) My newborn stash is out of control! But I'm trying a little of everything. I literally now have enough for 62 changes. Um... What happened to 36? My OS stash has 36 (including grovia hybrids which could be double used). I may add prefolds/covers to the OS stash in the future.

Holy cow! That's awesome. It's a good idea to try a little of everything, we did that too. We started with two styles, and added four more, and now we are down to four different things we use on a daily basis. (Plus the wool, which will be a new adventure).
I think it's 42 dipes not counting prefolds (20).

MapleMomma

Ok- now I don't feel so bad!

Smallllmin

secondaryPULSE said:

Hmmm....what about diatomaceous earth? Do you think that'd be effective against bedbugs? perhaps a tea tree oil infused wool wash (Kookaburra makes a TTO wool wash I like)? 

Other than that, seems that heat and chemical sanitization are out...

Haha I think you missed my bedbug post from earlier this week!
I just want to sanitize the wool (which I hope will kill any living things too lol).

ETA: It's late. I can't construct sentences.

MapleMomma

Tea tree oil is a good idea though. So would oregano. For sanitizing things (like counters) I use a ratio of 1 drop tea tree oil, 1 drop oregano oil, and 2 drops lavender oil.

freezorburn

Ok, I'm back -- just wanted to check some info before posting this.

So, in the knitting community, moths are a huge concern. And occasionally somebody's yarn stash will get infested and they have to figure out how to kill all the moths and their larvae and eggs. If you are dealing with 100% wool then you can use extreme heat or extreme cold to kill the bugs. This does not apply to fabric that is blended with any other fiber.

I'm assuming it's still bed bugs that you are concerned about? This article says they will die at 118F in 20 minutes, or 113F in 90 minutes. Or if you can keep them consistently below 0F for 4 days they should die.

For small amounts of wool, people will actually bake their wool. If they have large amounts they will put it in big black plastic garbage bags and let it bake in their cars in the sun on a hot day. Here's a blog about how someone went about baking her woolies. There are tons of articles and posts like this, I didn't review very many, and this one looked decent. I have never needed to do this myself. But I thought this one was interesting because she talks about using a little steam and trying to avoid scorching the wool. Actually, wool is extremely heat resistant, so I'm not sure what she was worried about. Do some googling. I saw another post where someone recommended 140F in the oven for 4 hours. There are different methods, maybe you can find one you are comfortable with.

The main thing to understand with wool is that it will felt if exposed to heat, moisture and friction together. You might be okay if you steam it on its own in a steaming pot, just don't move it around so much that it felts. But I like this blogger's approach of putting a pan of steam in the oven, because it's not a crazy amount of moisture she is introducing.

Smallllmin

secondaryPULSE said:

<snip>

Oh geez. Yeah, I can't say I'd be thrilled about bedbugs. I'm assuming you tried the DE and it didn't work? 

No, I bought a NIP Jules from a mom on the BG BST board on Fb. When I opened the package, there was a bedbug crawling on it. (WTF?!) So I did my best to dispose of all the packaging as fast as possible, and I chucked the dipe in the wash with hot water and bleach, and then into the dryer.
The following day, I was still having major anxiety about it, so I dusted the entire house with DE, and I think, gave myself a sinus infection in the process.
Today, the cat is acting really weird, kind of like when he got fleas last year. Soooo I'm back to freaking out again. Although I'm 99% sure there are no bugs in here, and I'm totally overreacting.
So I wanted to know how to sanitize used wool, since I won't be able to bleach any used wool that come into the house.

Smallllmin

freezorburn said:

Ok, I'm back -- just wanted to check some info before posting this.

So, in the knitting community, moths are a huge concern. And occasionally somebody's yarn stash will get infested and they have to figure out how to kill all the moths and their larvae and eggs. If you are dealing with 100% wool then you can use extreme heat or extreme cold to kill the bugs. This does not apply to fabric that is blended with any other fiber.

I'm assuming it's still bed bugs that you are concerned about? This article says they will die at 118F in 20 minutes, or 113F in 90 minutes. Or if you can keep them consistently below 0F for 4 days they should die.

For small amounts of wool, people will actually bake their wool. If they have large amounts they will put it in big black plastic garbage bags and let it bake in their cars in the sun on a hot day. Here's a blog about how someone went about baking her woolies. There are tons of articles and posts like this, I didn't review very many, and this one looked decent. I have never needed to do this myself. But I thought this one was interesting because she talks about using a little steam and trying to avoid scorching the wool. Actually, wool is extremely heat resistant, so I'm not sure what she was worried about. Do some googling. I saw another post where someone recommended 140F in the oven for 4 hours. There are different methods, maybe you can find one you are comfortable with.

The main thing to understand with wool is that it will felt if exposed to heat, moisture and friction together. You might be okay if you steam it on its own in a steaming pot, just don't move it around so much that it felts. But I like this blogger's approach of putting a pan of steam in the oven, because it's not a crazy amount of moisture she is introducing.

I never thought about baking, that's actually a really great idea. I think the Sloomb covers are blended with 2% lycra if I'm not mistaken.
I'm probably more comfortable with baking than with dipping it. That seemed like it would be an easy way for me to mess it all up.
...Which is something I'm really excellent at doing lately.

freezorburn

With lycra I would worry about it melting in a heat treatment. Do you live in a cold climate? Do you have a secure, uninsulated place around your house where you could leave it for a few days?

bumpuser5078523

Can you put it in a Ziploc bag and stick it in your freezer?

Smallllmin

Yep, I think it's 20 degrees out right now. I could put it in a ziploc bag and find somewhere to hide it outside haha

MapleMomma

Maybe in a freezer?

freezorburn

I don't think 20 degrees is cold enough. Maybe you should send it to one of our Canadian friends for a holiday.

Smallllmin

freezorburn said:

I don't think 20 degrees is cold enough. Maybe you should send it to one of our Canadian friends for a holiday.

I sent it to IL for a permanent holiday. I had never tried wool before, and medium was way too big for us!
I'm going to avoid the situation and buy it from Sloomb this time.

kz's_girlygirl

I was gifted a bunch of wool yarn that had been in a basement for a loooong time and had some moths- I packed it up in zip locs and put it in our deep freezer for about a week. Moth/larva free. GL!

kwitt22

@smalllimin Out of curiousity did you ever contact the person that sold you the bedbug diaper?

Smallllmin

@kwitt22‌ I did, reluctantly.
I felt badly... because I'm sure she either had no idea she had them in her house, or at the very least, did not know there was one on the dipe.
I didn't want her to be embarrassed. But I told her anyway, because I wanted to make sure she could get the problem taken care of-- especially with a baby in the house!

lao09

Don't boil it. Stick it in a ziploc bag and freeze over night. Repeat that after getting it back to room temp in the bag. Then wash it. That will do the trick