The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Some of you may have seen pics of a recent Edison find I posted. There is a early cylinder record case involved. When I got home and before I went into the house I decided to clean the carrying case out. So, while removing the wax records, shards and years of debris.....I noticed I had also acquired some livestock.

Livestock in the form of "Silverfish". Very much alive and kicking... .

Sure don't want them in the house.

So, I sprayed the inside with insecticide and read the infested item should also be frozen in order to kill any eggs, etc...

The case has now been in our deep freezer for almost 24 hours now.

Anyone have any advice on this or for how long I should keep the case on ice..??.

My brother does a lot of trapping and he has told me that I should get into the habit of putting some of my furniture item in a large plastic bag with a bug bomb in it before I bring it into the house. He does that with hides and leaves them overnight in the bag. I found a dead bat in an Edison I bought a long time ago. About crapped when it fell out from under the motor, but it wasn't going anywhere!

EarlH wrote: I found a dead bat in an Edison I bought a long time ago. About crapped when it fell out from under the motor, but it wasn't going anywhere!

"Three of the Doctor's valuable bats are now dead. The first little chap, dead 'e was of strangulation (which the unfortunate Countess de Pusey found so conveniently on 'er bedside table). The next one - 'anged from the 'ideous miniature gallows, which Professor Coca finds so effective at mesmerizing. And now this one - stabbed through the 'eart with a teeny, weeny knife. No doubt, we'll find another one..."

"Excusez my accent, Professeur, but if you look in your wineglass - DROWNED!"

"Right you are! And by the look of it, I'd say his little air-hose has been - slashed!"

-Firesign Theatre, "In the Next World, You're On Your Own"

Bill

You never know. A year or so ago I brought home a Columbia Viva Tonal console that had spent perhaps a decade in a garage. When I opened the back of it to start some restoration work (working in my kitchen, I live in a condo) I found that a family of roaches had set up housekeeping there and promptly begin skittering out. Fortunately I had a can of raid nearby under the sink. After getting rid of the live ones, I scrubbed out the interior to destroy any eggs.

Clay

Bought a quantity of records at a farm auction all in milk crates when I went to unload the car one crate had a 3 foot milk snake coiled and shaking his tail like a rattle snake, color and markings are similar spent hours searchin the car just in case

Well,after 72 hours of -35 degrees, I decided to bring the cylinder case out. Heck, if anything is still alive after that....I say let it live... .

Freezing did not seem to hurt the case one bit.

Silverfish will ONLY damage untreated Paper. Pretty much the same damage as moths, but Silverfish usually get into everything, I never had them in NY, but when I moved here to Florida, They find themselves in Attics and sheds mostly.

After your first encounter with them You remember to put any vintage paper in plastic or cellophane plastic bags. That should probably be done anyway to cut down on long term oxygen damage. Regular Ziploc bags work just fine. Silverfish just hate wax paper and anything plastic!

)

Tony K.

Edison Collector/Restorer