MIMF

I took this mandolin in for repairs and... er... um, a good cleaning.

Never had anything like this cross my bench before, the little Black dots and streaks are bug excrement. The mandolin had been hanging on a wall unused for some time and was brought to me to make ready to sell. Structurally, in pretty good shape but wow, what a mess both on and in it. The original case was just as bad and had been stored apart from the mandolin in a closet. There where still roaches in it when I looked inside but not for long, I gave them a bath in Permethrin for fabrics, followed a good vacuuming. I informed the owner about their bug problem and they have since been dealing with it. Pics tell the story... The interior is a graveyard for dead bugs and empty egg sacks. I had to put a bunch of small screws inside and shake the mandolin to knock them loose. I am not really prone to queasiness but this was pushing my limits. I believe that is a dead stink bug all the way to the right. Must have taken a wrong turn somewhere along the line.

The mandolin is now all cleaned up now. Thank goodness for rubber gloves...

Yikes!

A few years ago I restored a Martin that had mold growing inside. I cleaned it up initially using a glove bag to contain all the grossness.

Oh that's nasty! I once worked on an old Gibson B-15 that had some sort of bird or something living in it. There was a full on nest and just all kinds of nasty stuff all in there.
I have a J-50 in right now that the first thing I had to do was clean out all the mouse turds.

Wall storing instruments uncovered is not the best option for long term storage. That mandolin really needs a good clean up.

Many years ago, in the middle of a northeastern winter, I bought a used S. Yairi dreadnought with a hardshell case. Everything looked great. I brought it inside, let it warm up and was fooling around on it when I noticed there were fleas starting to land on my arm. The guitar had fleas.

The case was jumping with them. I took the case outdoors and left it on the porch and then cleaned up the guitar as best as I could (I think it may have involved Lysol). The next day I bought a couple of flea bombs and set one loose inside the closed case (outdoors on the porch). I think the other I put right inside the guitar and closed it in a large leaf bag. No more fleas.

I suppose a prior owner had a dog who liked to curl up in the open case. . .