[pianotech] Moth-proofing string bearing cloth

[Kazuo Yoshizaki]

I have had a customer who had the same problem. It was a Steinway from
the 1920's and I replaced all the felt including the understring felt
(I understand that the new felt is anti-moth treated). When I moved
the action to my shop, I saw moths flying for a while, which I didn't
see before, so the felt in the old piano can certainly be a place for
moths. They lay small eggs inside the felt.
It's been four years since then and the piano seems to be moth free
now. If replacing the felt is not an option for the customer, why
don't you first try putting some cedar blocks as I heard that the
fumes from the moth balls are not good for the piano?

Yoshi

On Wed, Sep 5, 2012 at 10:19 AM, Mark Dierauf <pianotech at nhpianos.com> wrote:
> I have a customer who has had an infestation of moths in her home, and is
> still seeing signs of activity after removing all rugs and other fabrics.
> She is concerned that the insects may be lurking in her piano. I inspected
> it carefully, and the only evidence that I could find was some very slight
> damage of the understring bearing cloth in the agraffe section. My advice to
> her was that it didn't seem to be a problem and she could safely ignore the
> piano as a potential source of the infestation. However, she is quite
> frustrated with her inability to eliminate the moths and would like me to
> explore moth-proofing the bearing cloth. Does anyone know of an easily
> applied insecticide that might be appropriate for this area? I'm assuming
> that spray-on products would not be the way to go due to possible string
> contamination and/or corrosion.
>
> - Mark