What Animal Hide Was Used For Old Violin Cases

Tiny, bow hair-eating bugs really exist and they tin can wreak costly damage to violin, viola and cello bows. Relieve yourself aggravation and money by following these preventive steps.

Almost all decomposition is actually the work of small bugs and microorganisms. That includes the unfortunate destruction of the hairs of cello, viola and violin bows, the work of millimeter-size bugs known equally dermestidae or "skin beetles."

You'll know them by their "piece of work" – the evidence of a bow hair bug infestation is when bow hairs on violins unaccountably break. This can happen to the hairs of viola and cello bows as well. Information technology's non that these types of bugs (there are between 500 and 700 split species worldwide) are music haters. They just adopt to eat dry organic cloth, from plants and animals, which includes peel, creature hair, feathers, and natural fibers. That includes horsehair, the material used in virtually bows of string instruments (lower quality bows use nylon or other synthetic textile).

Unfortunately, their nutrient source on musical instrument bows isn't limited to bow pilus. The same bug has been known to damage the frogs on fine bows by consuming both tortoiseshell and ivory. They can as well eat whalebone wraps on the bow grip.

You volition naturally plow to your local violin shop for advice if this happens. Unless y'all know how to cord horsehair yourself, you accept little choice but to have a skilled craftsman do that for you. But that'southward addressing a symptom, not the trouble – and it will happen once again if y'all don't discover the niggling bugs and banish them to as far away from your bow as possible.

The facts are that these dermestidae find violin cases a perfect home. It's a dark place most of the fourth dimension and evidently the horsehairs provide them with a delicious meal.

If your violin "lives" most of its life in a human-occupied dwelling house, it's almost inevitable they volition notice their way into your violin instance (our homes are host to thousands of species and billions, possibly trillions, of bugs and other microorganisms, many of which are benign).

Fortunately, there are a number of relatively easy steps one might take to keep them at bay, protect your bow, and reduce the number of visits you brand to your preferred violin shop:

1. Breathing and sunshine exposure – Air and lite, sunshine in item, are what the bow bugs fear most. So open up the case, remove the bow and violin and allow each a few days of exposure.

2. Vacuum your case – The bugs get out their larvae (offspring) in nooks and crannies that might escape the air and low-cal. Simply a practiced nozzle vacuuming will remove near if not all of them.

iii. Repair/replace your bow – If your bow is already suffering from bow bug damage, it will be necessary to replace the bow hair. Your violin shop volition or should be able to recognize when a repair or replacement is due to bow bugs.

4. Replace the case? – Particularly if it's an sometime case that hasn't been opened in a while, it might be a good idea to showtime over (while having the bow repaired) with a new case. But be forewarned, at that place are always bow bugs looking for new places to inhabit.

five. Shop the bow outside the case? – In a situation of uncertainty about bow bugs living in your case, information technology might brand sense to shop the bow in a light, airy location until y'all can resolve what's happening inside the case.

six. Impale them with sweet scents (not pesticides) – Essential oils such every bit rosemary oil, cedar oil, or cedar forest and cake of camphor, can exist placed inside the instance to repel bow bugs. Mothballs are believed to be harmful to human health, and pesticides might injure the musical instrument.

Mayhap one additional slice of advice is simply to play long and often. Making music with your stringed musical instrument brings more light and air to the musical instrument overall. The fiddler on the roof knew what he was doing!

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Source: https://www.benningviolins.com/viola-cello-and-violin-bows-bow-bugs-and-bad-hair-days.html

Posted by: dotyandre1985.blogspot.com

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