If you use cedar blocks or bricks or even have a cedar lined closet, after about a year, the cedar stops giving off the aromatics.

Turns out the oils evaporate from the very top layer of the wood and repel the little buggers, and it's the moth larvae (worms) that eat the material not the moth. So if you see moths you probably already have holes in something.

You need to sand the surface all over to let the oils come out from the next layer of wood. You only have to remove a few of the cells from the top layer of the tree each time, so the wood lasts a long time.


Hamish,
My great grandmothers chest from Ireland (one of the very few pieces they brought over) was lined with cedar strips on the inside. The outside was some kind of ugly dark wood. She kept her wedding dress and some table cloths in it, as well as my GGF's uniform.
Maybe that's what your family had.

Cedar is still expensive and back then it was even more expensive!