"Wood beasts?"

[Brian Holden]

Hi John

Yes, I would be a worried, as we have a similar problem here in New Zealand.
We have a beetle called Borer (domestic name) which loves chomping slowly
into wood via tiny little holes - especially spruce it seems.  You can
remove a badly affected key from a piano and literally crumble it in your
hand.  On one occasion I had to get a key rebuilt.  Evidence is usually in
the form of little piles of wood dust appearing on the bottom of the piano
around the trapwork, directly below the affected part.  You can have the
piano (and in your case perhaps the workshop) fumigated which effectively
kills off the little beasts and stops the problem getting worse.  The good
news is that it takes many years for a piano to get really bad (which gives
you time to treat it) and in most cases dos not seriously affect the
instrument.  Also, the beetles may be in just that one piano, which I assume
came in from somewhere else.

Brian Holden

-----Original Message-----
From: John Ross <piano.tech@ns.sympatico.ca>
To: pianotech@ptg.org <pianotech@ptg.org>
Date: Monday, 1 November 1999 5:18
Subject: "Wood beasts?"



>Three key buttons were just hollow shells, and below them was a pile of
>what looked like brown and white seeds.
>>John M. Ross
>Windsor, Nova Scotia, Canada.
>