When you walk into any asian fabric store, you will be greeted by the all-too-familiar scent of Moth Balls. Why do asians love the Moth ball so much, though? Get ready. This is post two of a two day posting marathon!
“I think mothballs should be on the list. What is up with the obsession with mothballs? I have loads of childhood mothball memories… at every relative’s house, but I’ve never met a white person who smelled like mothballs… so I think it must be Asian grannies that keep the mothball industry in business…”
- HapaGirl
“Moth Balls are an Asian’s best friend” -Marilyn Monroe (lol)
In Asia, temperate weather conditions and marshy rice patty fields have prompted an alarming rate of insect infestation. In the states, Asians know that insects are the least of their problems. Due to their pre-existing fears, however, they are motivated to keep their valuable possessions insect-free. It also doesn’t help that Asians have excellent heat regulating techniques (continuous sweating) in order to cool themselves off after a hard day of work. To suppress both the odor and the annoying insects, asians have passed on many natural remedies including incense, potpourri, and in some cases, dung.
Enter, the Moth Ball: an ingeniously minuscule invention uniting the power of sulfur, dichlorobenzine, and naphthalene. At this moment, you’re saying, “Hey Peter.. spare me the scientific mumbo jumbo.” All I can say is, “you’re absolutely right.” Asians still love the moth ball despite its carcinogenic qualities because of what it does for them.
Says one of our readers, “I kept the kitchen really clean, especially around the sink. That helped, but it didn’t get rid of them. So finally I just put out moth balls and that took care of it. Moth balls are great. I don’t like the smell much, but you can use them for so many things! I really like moth balls.”
The secret behind moth balls isn’t their odor killing ability or their exterminating eminence. The truth lies in the fact that Asians are all exterminators at heart. That’s why they have been of the select few “ethnic” groups to wage war on their own kind. Though the battle with creepy crawlers is not as heated as, say… the Korean or Vietnam War, Asians still hold extreme pride in their ability to keep their homes free of infestation.
In order to do so, they use moth balls. Yes, moth balls. Asians know that insects procreate quite rapidly. “This is my third reincarnation of fruit flies,” says Colorblind Cupid. The fact of the matter is that when the insects breed, they grow immune to the moth balls. In turn, this creates a super race of moth ball resistant moths that… yes, only asians can destroy. That’s the asian entrepreneurial gene kicking in once again. You better watch out for asian extermination companies, which will be popping up in the next few years!
Asians love Moth Balls because they keep their clothing free of moths and insects by releasing hazardous fumes that kill larvae. Moth Balls are also used to cover up the horrible stench of perspiration and other bodily odors. The third, but more obscure reason is the obvious entrepreneurial potential that breeding moth-ball resistant moths. For those reasons and an obviously larger amount of reasons that will be mentioned in the reader comments, asians love moth balls.
P.S. My mom smashes cockroaches with her bare hands.
Last 5 posts by Peter
- #81 National Scatology - July 8th, 2008
- Stuff Asian People Like in the News! (again) - July 4th, 2008
- Still Vacationing... - July 1st, 2008
- #80 Aiya! - June 24th, 2008
- #?? Vacation - June 23rd, 2008
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11 responses so far ↓
1 Stacy // Apr 22, 2008 at 10:58 am
I have to say.. I really love the post script.
2 Anonymous // Apr 22, 2008 at 7:18 pm
It hits home!!!
3 nanheyangrouchuan // Apr 22, 2008 at 10:55 pm
And this is done neglecting the dangers of the fumes.
4 anonymous // Apr 23, 2008 at 9:14 pm
I do not think Asians are alone in this! I know blacks that do this! Smart idea anyway! If Asians came up with it I am not surprised! Asians come up with alot of stuff. I do not mean it in the ‘model minority’ way but the commonsense smart way! If I possibly offended, sorry!
5 jonny // Apr 28, 2008 at 6:24 am
my granny crushes roaches with her bare hands…
6 Ica // May 2, 2008 at 12:33 am
i crush roaches with my bare feet. to use hands are beyond ick…(but then again, some people might think using feet are ickier). and of course, i buy mothballs in bulk. when a big bag of moth balls is halfway finished, i went out and bought not one, but TWO big bags.
7 Justin // May 2, 2008 at 3:07 am
wow, i give u props
8 Maggie // May 10, 2008 at 5:27 am
LOL! @ the last comment.
You’re very amusing. Even though it’s sort of an serious subject, you can like inject humour into it while still maintaining the serious point of the topic~!
9 DG // May 22, 2008 at 11:07 am
Finally!! this mystery is settled. For years I have gently, and in the most politically correct way, tried to find out why some asian people had that weird smell.
It started when I arrived from Europe to go to UC Berkeley ten years ago. I had a Korean flatmate who kept to himself, but when I passed his door that strange odor was there.
Years passed, and every so often I would notice that smell when out and about. I wasn’t obsessed about this so it took a couple of years until I noticed the pattern, i.e. that smell and an asian person in the vicinity. I hate to say it but I think that smell is quite bad, not unclean, but similar perhaps to smelling like chlorine.
I would sometimes ask my caucasian friends and some of them would agree that they had noticed it, but they had no idea what the deal was. Some suggested it was the spices in their food that made their whole houses smell this way. I doubted that. I never got to know an asian person closely enough that I could find out what the reason was by asking directly.
The breakthrough was when my brother was visiting from Europe three years ago. While in a Chinese owned store I asked him if he noticed this peculiar smell. He immediately said that this was like the smell he had noticed from old clothes that had been exposed to some bug repellant. Further investigation led us to discover that the smell was of mothballs. We concluded that this must be a habit of the older generation of Chinese/Asians and some of the younger ones were picking up the habit (or had no choice if they were living with their family).
Last night I was helping my Chinese neighbor and got an intense dose of mothballs, this prompted me to finally go online to look into this matter. I found this posting and can now check off one of life’s mysteries…
I mean it in the kindest and friendliest way when I say that the smell is not pleasant to non-asians. My girlfriend just got her clothes back from a chinese cleaner that was recommended to her (by an asian). My girlfriend was impressed by the friendly service and good cleaning, but told me she can never go there again since all the clothes came back smelling like mothballs… One question, could she ask the cleaner to not give the clothes the “mothball treatment” or is the whole operation just infused?
Finally, for asians wanting to date non-asians, I can say with high confidence that you need to let go of any “mothball lifestyle” to maximize your chances with the opposite sex.
I hope I am not offending anyone, if I did, I apologize.
10 anonymous // Jun 2, 2008 at 12:42 am
For the record, I prefer a moth ridden smelly place to a roach, moth, and rat infested one anyway! Anyway, I am sure non-Asians have things that smell not so pleasant!This is just IMHO.
11 DG // Jun 5, 2008 at 11:34 pm
Hmmm, looks like I managed to offend the above “anonymous”. That’s unfortunate and I re-iterate that no malicious intent is meant with my post on mothballs.
It is correct that I can think of smelly things unique to my non-asian culture. However, I can’t think of any that are infused into my clothes at the moment, or I may not be aware of it…
I have no mothballs in my home and my place is not infested with roaches, moths, and rats. I think it is common knowledge that these are not needed anymore (there are basically other more effective and less smelly options). However, we should consider that if the cultures that constitute a large fraction of this planet considers this a smell pleasant, then perhaps this smell is pleasant (based on majority opinion).
All I know is that I want my friends to tell me if I smell weird to them. I don’t need any more things to repel girls with… got enough already…
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