What if my drums have bedbugs?

July 10, 2015 12:16 PM

I have been storing my beloved drum kit at a friend's house for three years. But now I have room for them in my house, so I'm bringing them home. Yay! Alas, my friend recently went through a bedbug episode. What should I do when I bring my drums home to keep the bedbugs out?

I'm a bedbug rookie and want to stay that way. I'm making no assumptions about the efficacy of my friend's anti-bedbug work, he says he's in the clear right now but he has a big place and as far as I'm concerned his house is still a hot zone.

In addition to my five-piece kit, I have a pedal, a throne with a fabric seat, cymbals and stands and a nylon cymbal bag. All drums have both top and bottom heads. Additionally, I had foam / rubber mutes on all the drums and cymbals.

My plan so far:

- transport everything in garbage bags to keep the car clean. Problem: kick drum may be too big and I don't have a case for it.
- throw the mutes away, they suck to play on anyway
- nuke the cymbal bag in the dryer
- vaccuum the throne seat and seal in a bag with some pesticide stripes for a week.

That's the soft surfaces. Do I have to worry about the hard surfaces? I could pop all the heads off the drums, vaccuum + wipe them inside and out, and also wipe the cymbals, stands, and pedal, but are bedbugs or eggs going to be hanging out on those hard surfaces? Is there anything else I should do?

posted by Sauce Trough to Home & Garden (7 answers total)

You can kill bedbugs by suffocating them. Wrap everything in plastic and duct tape the edges together. Get a couple pounds of dry ice from a grocery store (how much you need depends on the total volume). Put it in clear plastic, on top of a towel (so it doesn't damage your floors), and seal the whole thing. Make sure you leave it a bit loose so that the extra dry ice doesn't make the whole thing pop.

This is a good low tech way to kill bedbugs. The hard part is making sure that they're all in the same location.

But, actually, it's quite unlikely there are bedbugs residing on your drum kit. They tend to stay within 5 feet of the bed, once they find the food source.
posted by ethidda at 12:28 PM on July 10, 2015

Best answer: Heat and cold can both be used to kill bedbugs. 120 degrees for several minutes is reportedly sufficient. Obviously you need to make sure the object fully reaches that temperature for at least that long. If you live in an area where it is warm in summer, maybe place the items in a hot car for an hour.
posted by jgreco at 12:35 PM on July 10, 2015

This is really unlikely unless the drums have been anywhere near where someone was regularly sleeping (I'm guessing not). I wouldn't worry about it, and I have had bedbugs before.
posted by advil at 1:14 PM on July 10, 2015 [1 favorite]

Were they stored in a bedroom or near a couch that was known to be infested?

If not your preventative measures sounds good. Also leave the whole set in the car on a sunny hot day all day.
posted by amaire at 2:14 PM on July 10, 2015

Ignore half baked advice and listen to University Entomologists to ensure you fully bake the eggs.
posted by Sophont at 3:13 PM on July 10, 2015 [1 favorite]

Drums are not fabric-y things. They're also not things people sit or lay on, or wear.

You're beanplating this. I honestly wouldn't even worry too much about the seat or the bags. The stuff you suggested isn't necessarily a waste of time, but as someone who's dealt with bedbugs i don't know if i'd bother.

People get way over paranoid about this stuff, honestly. There's so much superstition.
posted by emptythought at 3:39 PM on July 10, 2015

I got bed bugs because they infested the walls of our apartment building. Those evil shits will go everywhere, although yes, they congregate near food sources (sleeping/sitting places).

In my book, it would be how bad the infestation was/is. If it was so bad that the bugs might be sort of advancing into other areas so that they can find more delicious blood, I'd call an expert for this interesting iteration of are bed bugs in my shit.
posted by angrycat at 4:10 PM on July 10, 2015