Moth Balls

badboy368 wrote:
Looking for a suggestion on how to remove the smell of moth balls from our MH.

At the end of the season we store our MH which includes using moth pulls through out the motor home including the storage units below.

The Problem is next season when we take out the MH, the inside smells like moth balls.

The mice don't like it and neither do we.

Any ideas!

Molly

I would suggest you seek another substance other than mothballs for the purpose. If you're smelling the odor, you're probably getting more than the tolerable limit in your lungs.

I guess it depends on how fast you want to get rid of the odor. If you open some windows and take your motorhome out for an hour's drive that should change the air out in the living quarters. There are de-oderizer products to put on carpeting before vacuuming. And you can wash the hard surfaces like counter tops.

Fire repair outfits used to fog in something that had no distinct odor of it's own, just kind of a sweet sugar like smell. They would fog it in, lock things up for an hour or so, and then draw the air out with fans. A house could be full of soot, but smell as fresh as the out-of-doors. But I cannot seem to find anything like that online.

Fresh air first then if that doesn't work use an ozone generator. Used car dealers use them to remove cigarette stink. Just don't be in there while using!

BuckBarker is right on about not being in there while using. EPA says if the ozone generator is safe to be around, then it will not generate enough ozone to remove odors. On the other hand, if it generates enough ozone to remove odors, it is not safe to be around.

The ozone post got me curious and I read this:

epa.gov wrote:
The same chemical properties that allow high concentrations of ozone to react with organic material outside the body give it the ability to react with similar organic material that makes up the body, and potentially cause harmful health consequences.

epa.gov wrote:
Ozone can adversely affect indoor plants, and damage materials such as rubber, electrical wire coatings, and fabrics and art work containing susceptible dyes and pigments (U.S. EPA, 1996a).

Not only can it damage me if I'm not careful, but it can damage your RV. Don't think I want to be around or want to use these things in my RV.

http://www.epa.gov/iaq/pubs/ozonegen.html

We do the mothball routine too. 6 months locked up tight. Open the windows. Takes a few days to air out.

BuckBarker wrote:
Fresh air first then if that doesn't work use an ozone generator. Used car dealers use them to remove cigarette stink. Just don't be in there while using!

way back before ozone generators in the 50's early 60's my dads partime job when not a Dallas Firefighter was used car sales.Apples set in a car for a few days usually got any kind of odor out.

BuckBarker wrote:
Fresh air first then if that doesn't work use an ozone generator. Used car dealers use them to remove cigarette stink. Just don't be in there while using!

This

We use mothballs with great sucess every winter while the MH is in storage. Usually just open the windows and in a day the smell is gone. However one year I could not get the odor out, seems a few mothballs had been left behind. Now I put the mothballs in small disposable plastic cups and place them in a few areas and it makes it so much easier to clean up in Spring, none left behind.

Chemical Makeup

The two main ingredients used in mothballs are naphthalene or para-dichlorobenzene. When these ingredients are trapped in an enclosed space, the fumes turn into gas as they mix with the surrounding air. Pests die after inhaling the gas. If the container is not airtight, however, the fumes escape and lead to long-term exposure which might cause health problems. The smell and residue of the gas remains on clothes or wood for an indefinite amount of time, even after the source is gone. Washing the clothes or airing out the drawers may not dissolve the smell. The EPA has now mandated that using mothballs in a way other than specified on the package label is illegal because of the harm they can cause humans, pets and the environment.



Read more: http://www.ehow.com/info_8585260_moth-balls-harmful.html#ixzz2h3fCJ0vc

Please do yourself a favor and find a less toxic alternative.