Recently got a handmedown pair of wool camo pants, never worn, but they were stored with mothballs. Washed it with Hunter specialties odor removing detergent as i do with my other hunting clothes, but I can’t get rid of the smell. Hung it outside also, but little change. Any tips?

It will wear off with time.

Try spraying them with Febreze Free Nature (this is the unscented version of Febreze). It has a trio of chemicals that trap and then isolate organic compound odors. I believe the active in moth balls is naphthalene and it is organic in origin so this might work. Naphthalene can penetrate deeply into the wool fibers so it may take several light sprays to get the job done. Spray the pants on one side, then turn them inside out and spray the other side. Let them dry for a day and spray them again. Be sure and hang them in full sun. A little bit of heat from the sun will help the naphthalene ‘bloom’ to the surface where the Febreze will grab it.

Febreze Free Nature also works well on hunting clothes since all of our body soils/odors fall in the organic camp.

Fdp, it better wear off by deer season, lol.

The only way I have ever been remotely successful getting rid pf that smell is spraying the clothes with a mixture of 3 parts apple cider vinegar to 1 part water.

Fdp, I’ll definitely try the apple cider vinegar method,. George Vernon, if vinegar doesn’t work for me, I’ll try febreeze

Mechanic I typed the ratio backwards. It should be 3 parts water to 1 part cider vinegar.

We aren't tryin' to pickle 'em. :)

Fdp, more vinegar is more bettererrrrrrrrr. No , I got ya.

The easy way to get rid of a strong smell is to put the object in the warm sun light. I bought two artist made vases that had terminal cigarette smoke odor. I tried everything. I ran them through three dish washing cycles. With vinegar rinses. Nothing worked. The smell was so strong, we considered throwing them away. Read about putting them in the sun light for a couple of days and it worked.

What about taking them to the cleaners? At least they can tell you if they can get rid of smell

Gentlemen, list is growing. Will try vinegar solution, then I’ll neutralize with baking soda, and hang in the sun to “ bake”. I’ll leave the dry cleaning for last resort . Who knows if it makes a cover scent? But I have doubts, because I can smell that thing from a ways back.

I used to put mothballs in my bag of wild turkey feathers but hated the smell, even when I thought the smell on my fletched arrows was gone if the feathers got damp the smell came back full force. I abandoned moth balls for borax.

I second Febreze, I caught a skunk in a trap next to the house I had set to try to catch an armadillo. Not knowing better I thought if I shot it in the head it wouldn't spray, big mistake, the skunk let it go full force.

My SUV was 20 ft away and up wind with the hatch back up but still got a dose of the awful stink inside.

A friend said if I put bowls of Fresh Step Kitty litter in my car it would absorb all the smell in a couple of days, this didn't work.

I bought a bottle of Febreze and sprayed down the inside of my car and things got better. It took 3 or 4 sprayings over the next few days to get rid of all the smell but Febreze did the job.

The flower bed where the skunk sprayed was so bad it would make your eyes water. I tried soaking the area with water, didn't work. I covered up the fetid soil with sand, didn't work. I had heard if you washed a sprayed dog with tomato juice it would remove the smell so bought several gallons of tomato juice and soaked the area, that worked.

Stix, that is what I was thinking. Of course they can smell it, but why would they equate that to humans? It's just another curiosity to them until you correlate it for them.

Some of the best cover scents around here, small farm country amongst mountain ridges, would be diesel fuel, gas, hydraulic oil, and cow poop, not necessarily in that order.

Find somebody with a small loads of machine. Put it a room and run it overnight with your clothes. That'll get rid of the smell. I know ozone machines are hard to come by, but they're out there. We have one at work for those really bad. Sticky rooms. Works great. JF

As small as they are you wouldn't think they would have that much odor.

Just wear your scentlock carbon suit over them and you're all set :)....okay, sorry I'm no help.

Leaving the pants exposed to air for long periods of time and hanging it outside for multiple days especially in the sun will help get rid of the smell. Hang them by the waist band for full exposure to the air. It will take time to get rid of the smell. Leaving them open to air now till hunting season the smell will dissipate. You can try running them in the dryer on medium heat that will help some. It takes time for that smell to go away. Just be careful washing them, wool shrinks when washed. DANNY

Doesn’t say much about Hunters Specialty lol

Must be only the males that smell. : )

Laugh or mock if you like, but when you are done and you are at wit's end, try this: 1. Hang item on clothesline 2. Spray the item with half and half. Yes, like for you coffee. Do the inside first, then reverse and spray the outside. 3. Allow to work for three or four hours. 4. Wash in Atsko brand Sport Wash. 5. Stretch and shape to your liking, and allow to dry. The lactic acid does something at the molecular level to fragrances. I kid you not.

Yellas you getting as bad as me lol.

Also, pack them in an airtight bag with charcoal. It absorbs odor.

Babysaph, unfortunately I have MCS. Major symptom is extreme sensitivity to fragrances. If there is a way to kill foo-foo and other stinkies, it is likely I have tried it. The airtight bag with activated charcoal is also good. You can also buy powdered hyrophilic zeolite and add a teaspoon to the wash cycle.

Ozone machine, I'm telling ya. JF

I never minded the smell of moth balls just thought they were difficult to harvest.

I was going to smoke them with hardwood smoke, the charcoal molecules adhere to the fabric, so I’ve been told.

The wood smoke may help but to get any charcoal fibers to amount to anything you would first have to turn thecwood into charcoal.

That is time consuming in and of itself.

One word—ozone.

Sunlight makes complete sense. It's actually a big part of the process that makes ozone work. Sunlight and no moisture will kill all scent in time.

Sounds like a bunch of work! What size are they? I might take them off your hands so you ain’t gotta smell that stink anymore. Just kidding. Lots of good advise already offered.

pet order should work well

heck my dad use to store his Pa. tuxedo in moth balls also. When I smelled that I knew it was time for buck season

For now they’re been hanging outside in the rain and a day of sun, will see how it goes.

Yellah's idea about lactic acid makes sense to me. There was a discussion recently about removing 'gamey' taste from meat and several people mentioned using buttermilk as a marinade. It works. Might do the trick here as well.

I don't use mothballs, probably should. Cost me a bunch of fly-tying capes once.

Dana C....nuke all feathers/fur in a microwave for 15 seconds. Put em in paper bags when you do it. Kills moth larvae and eggs. Used to do that back when I tied professionally. If I still had some material left(sold it all)I would tie you some size 28 Disco Midges(I invented that pattern).

rinse them with vinegar in the water and line dry.

I have a covered deck on my house and have found any clothes that smell bad benefit from hanging outside and going through the night time humidity and drying back out during the day. I get zero effect from hanging the same clothes in the house but can usually get rid of the smells with 4 or 5 days of hanging them on the deck, if it is windy outside so much the better.

I don't think deer are bothered by mothball smell. Stix might be right. I store my wools with a few mothballs every year. One time I forgot to take my wools out until the day before season. The next day I had deer all around me. They were not alerted by anything. Not my smell or mothball smell. I got a deer that day at close range. It was the first day of gun season and during the rut.

If you think Moth balls smell bad have you ever smelled a mole, smells like Molasses.

You might put the wool pants in a plastic bag and put a box of baking soda in and shake well. leave outside for a week, then wash with baking soda and rinse and let dry. Then store with pine needles or something natural to you woods.

As a side note Enos makes unscented moth cakes that I use in a home built clothes closet. The cakes last about three months.

Problem solved! Hung outside in the dew and sun, then I put it in a bin full of cedar pet shavings for 2 days. No more noticeable mothball smell. Not that I or my wife can detect. So I guess it’s all good.

I doubt anyone killed any deer back in the day smelling like moth balls. LOL. They all smelled like moth balls. The deer ran from one guy to the other.

Babysaph, deer have better smell than we do, so they can smell those tiny little moth balls.

Glad you got 'em aired out.

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