Carpet Beetles Violin Bow

They re fairly common even in scrupulously clean homes and they love to eat bow hair as well as wool.

Carpet beetles violin bow.

Carpet beetle larvae and eggs can be killed with mothballs that contain paradichlorobenzene pdb. If you see them vacuum out your case as best you can and put some cedar. Carpet beetles fail to distinguish between unnecessary hair shed from an animal and a valuable violin bow. Richard ward of ifshin violins in berkeley california says he sees evidence of bow bugs almost every day in the shop.

Moths are often blamed for damage done by carpet beetles. Bow bugs are largely responsible for munching bow hair so if you ve pulled an old little used bow from a case in the attic and found that its hairs are loose or randomly broken you can guess that the bugs have been active. When the home in question has a violin case on the premises it s likely that the bow bug is going to find that case and move in. I ve seen no further sign of the dreaded carpet beetle larvae in my violin cases after doing this but i do see them from time to time in our pantry right along the edge of the ceiling.

Check inside your case for any carpet beetle larvae you will see these as small dark insect shells. How often you use a fiddle is a factor too. Bowbugs aka carpet beetles like to work undisturbed. That is your violin viola or cello case is infected with an actual bug that is feeding on your bow hair.

If you have carpet beetles frequent vacuuming with a strong vacuum cleaner can reduce the problem less food for the lil critters. Carpet beetles prefer dark environments. Also named bow mites and carpet beetles these bugs are common in homes. These are carpet beetles and they love bow hair.

It is the larvae that do the damage to bow hair. It is important not to store your bow in an unopened case for long periods of time because bow bugs do best in dark enclosed places. Carpet beetle bow bugs unusal bow plugs when to rehair my bow bow screw button bow tip replacement bow wrappings bridge fitting broken scrolls scroll ears cello cracked rib cello end pin block cello scroll repair. I have also heard that because the larvae much prefer the dark a bow that is used regularly is rarely attacked by them.

A closed violin case with horsehair for food as more than adequate. Bow bugs also known as carpet beetles and bow mites are larval stage members of the dermestidae family.