[pianotech] bedbugs

[Douglas Gregg]

Hi,
I am new to this forum but have been restoring pianos for about 10 years.
That is not so germane to this subject, but I am also a veterinary
pathologist-retired. I am not an entomologist but have had some training in
this area. Most insects are killed by freezing. In fact, the old method of
getting rid of bedbugs was to put the mattress outside in freezing weather.

I don't know how long it will be before freezing weather comes the way of
this pair of pianos. However, it might be possible to rent some space in a
walk-in freezer for a weekend. I know freezing does not hurt pianos as I
have about 20 pianos in a barn that often freezes in the NY winter and does
no harm. This is a fairly gradual freeze in the barn. I recommend if the
pianos are put in a freezer to wrap them in blankets and then leave the
blankets on when they are removed to slow the temperature changes. Probably,
bugs will not even be in piano. The upholstered bench may be another story.

I don't recommend suddenly heating a piano. I had one in a church about 10
years ago that went through a power failure and the temperature went to near
freezing and then the power came back on and the heat came up quickly to
70F. It caused some real contortions, I am sure, as a number of tuning pins
were squished out of the pinblock. The pinblock was OK and I just had to tap
the pins down and retune the piano.

Douglas Gregg
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20101020/52c16073/attachment-0001.htm>