I love pine cones and want to use them in my holiday decor this year. It sometimes creeps me out thinking of little critters lingering inside waiting to come out to explore my home. I looked for a quick and easy way to rid the pine cones of pests and I came across a couple ways to do this.
One way is to soak the pine cones in bleach. I soaked the pine cones in the picture below for a couple days in bleach. The first day I used a 1 part bleach to 2 parts water in a glass container. Glass is important when working with chemicals. You don’t want any kind of reactions using other materials.
I not only wanted to kill critters but I also wanted to lighten the pine cones. I was worried the above formula wasn’t going to pan out so I dumped it out. I then refilled the container and soaked the pine cones in pure bleach for another day. That will do the trick.
On the third day, The pine cones appeared to be a dark brown even after soaking in pure bleach but will lighten as they dry. I drained the bleach and rinsed the pine cones with cold water. Speaking of cold, pine cones will close up when added to cold liquid. Don’t worry, they will reopen after they become dry and warm again and the bleach process will still work even while closed.
After allowing the pine cones to drip and dry over night in the kitchen sink the pine cones started to open up a bit. I became impatient and proceeded to the second option for pest removal, baking. That’s right, place the pine cones on a cookie tray and place in the over at 200 degrees F and bake for about 30-40 min. and they will not only dry out they will also reopen beautifully. I love the look of lightened pine cones and can’t wait to lighten more for my Christmas projects.
How to kill unwanted pine cone pests?
1. Bleach
2. Bake in oven
Stop by over the next few weeks for pine cone creations.
Thanks for stopping by!
