[pianotech] Clothes Moth

[Gerald Groot]

I don't know the answer but, I would most certainly be careful about leaving
your tool box open while you work there and then taking them home or off to
another job by mistake?  Maybe they'd die in transit, I donno.  Haven't run
into moths for a long time now.   

 

Jer

 

From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Al Guecia/Allied PianoCraft
Sent: Wednesday, February 02, 2011 8:54 AM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Clothes Moth

 

Call an exterminator. Most guarantee their work.

 

Al -

High Point, NC

 

 

 

On Feb 2, 2011, at 8:18 AM, Mark Davis wrote:





Dear List

 

I do some tuning work for a piano retail dealer who unfortunately does not
restore/rebuild pianos to the standard one would like.  I have often tried
to point them in the right direction but as things are, if you get away with
something and you can make money out of it, why should you change.
Unfortunately this is the thinking of this particular dealership. I have
recently come across the clothes moth.  I noticed a few months ago a few
little moths flying around in the showroom.  I did not make anything of it
as I have never come across these little moths.  Somewhere in the back of my
mind there was a niggle about it, but I chose to ignore it (silly me). 

 

I then was asked in early December last year to regulate one of the grand
pianos.  On opening the piano and pulling the mechanism out I found that the
key frame felt was riddled with clothes worm and also a few moths came
flying out too.  The action stop block cushion felt  was almost completely
eaten away.  I now know that it is a clothes moth as I went and looked on
the internet as to what one calls this type of insect and moth.

 

I purchased some insect repellent on request of the dealer and put it in and
around the showroom.  I also cleaned the piano out as thoroughly as I could
and replaced the key frame material and action stop block with new felt.
The problem is these mothes are still flying around and I see new worms
(they make a felt casing around themselves) in the piano.  On further
inspection today I have found clothes worm in two other pianos.  It really
is a sad story but I am not able to change people and I need the work to.
These cloth mothes like dark areas, rooms and spaces and lay eggs on piano
parts and walls, and it goes without saying that one cannot see the eggs
with the eye (or atleast I haven't seen them yet), they hatch and then begin
chewing all the material, clothes and carpet up.

 

My question is, how does one eradicate clothes worm/moth effectively?     

Thank you

Mark

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20110202/4b818ab9/attachment.htm>