[CAUT] Critter damaged punchings

[James Ellis]

I have seem my previous post on the subject copied and re-copied at least a
half dozen times.  I was not recommending the turpentine treatment - not
now.  I was simply telling you what some of us did 60-65 years ago.  What I
didn't tell you is that I knew one technician who mixed arsenic in unleaded
(white) gasoline, and sprayed that stuff in pianos.  Talk about RISK and
HAZARD!!!  I certainly didn't do that!

The main thing I made sure of in those by-gone days was that any felts that
showed any indication in critter damage, eggs, or whatever, got stripped
out, bagged, and burned, and the piano got thoroughly cleaned before the
new felts went in.  That usually solved the problem.

There was one more:  If I found broken strings in the low tenor of an
upright - i.e., broken down at the bridge, I would usually find a mouse
nest under the keys, and some gnawed keys to boot.  The bridge was their
incline from the lower level to the upper one.  They would use the
"stairway" as a "toilet".

Jim Ellis