Re: How do you store your instruments when not playing
"Bow bugs" is a colloquial name for a series of insects that eat animal hair and fur, and perhaps other animal matter. Museums have people who work at keeping them from artifacts. The bugs live in the outdoors, probably in your yard -- perhaps not in the desert, but I wouldn't bet on it. When I lived in a rural home, I often saw them indoors, not knowing at the time that they were bow bugs. Occasionally, I find them in my urban residence. Yes, they do lay their eggs in dark places, and invaded my violin case, The larvae ate the hair from my bow, though I never saw them. Getting a bow re-haired is expensive (close to $100 these days). After contacting a museum conservator, and learning about the process of sealing the violin case case in plastic garbage bags, then putting it in the deep freeze for a few months (repeat if necessary), I just threw out my case. Perhaps keeping the fiddle out of the case would prevent them to a degree, as they lay eggs in dark places. Still, if your bow is lying around the house, it's presumably dark at night, and they may creep out of other dark places, looking for food. Anyway, do what works. If you do keep your fiddle in a case, keep it shut when you're playing or when you're not using it, so no creatures can crawl in. This is not a problem with mandolins or other lute instruments, only with bows that use horsehair, as opposed to synthetics. (Bow bugs are also suspects in my baldness.)
Robert Johnson's mother, describing blues musicians:
"I never did have no trouble with him until he got big enough to be round with bigger boys and off from home. Then he used to follow all these harp blowers, mandoleen (sic) and guitar players."
Lomax, Alan, The Land where The Blues Began, NY: Pantheon, 1993, p.14.
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