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Below is a photo of 4 bows. Two were in a dark closet all Summer. Two were in the next room used as a practice room and having "normal" AC all the time. The closet also was pretty much air conditioned, but dark. The closet bows were stored with no hair tension.
My region of NC has all sorts of allergies, bacteria, mold, etc. floating around even with AC. I have to suspect that mites ate the bow hair and I'm really ticked because one bow was a real nice pernambuco octagon. I wonder if the ultrasonic bug repellers keep away mites?
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Never heard of bow bugs...Very interesting in a bad way. I have been bitten by bed bugs more than once (band tours - low budget motels).
Well, guess I will just move my bows out into the light. They will never be noticed in my piles of violin paraphenelia. They were not in a case in the closet.
(I just wonder if these bugs prefer certain kinds of rosin? I did not have this problem before using Magic Rosin ! And there were 1 or 2 other bows that were not damaged at all even though included in the same pile?)
But I'm sure that Johnson is right on.
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I never heard of this either. You learn something every day. 
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
Well, there IS some good news. I had 3-4 bows routinely stashed in the closet. Two were trashed, one was "sick" and one survived unharmed.
Who would guess? A cheapo, VSO type, Chinese EBay viola bow! Not a sign of attack! At least the bow bugs seem to prefer the better class bows 
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Oliver said:
Well, guess I will just move my bows out into the light. They will never be noticed in my piles of violin paraphenelia. They were not in a case in the closet.
(I just wonder if these bugs prefer certain kinds of rosin? I did not have this problem before using Magic Rosin ! And there were 1 or 2 other bows that were not damaged at all even though included in the same pile?)
But I'm sure that Johnson is right on.
You have a PILE of bows?!?
I elected to do a burn out on the patio and I'm glad I did. I think that it melted but there was a real bad odor so I'm not convinced one way or the other.
Makes me wonder about what might be found on hair from a horses tail (if it is).
In addition, the bow acts pretty normal which is not true of other bows I have had with known synthetic. I'll have to check EBay about current bow offerings. I wonder now what K&K is selling?
On second thought I would guess that economy violin packages really can not afford to include "good" bows but then too, the whole deal is primarily for very new students and others just experimenting.
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Wow I didn't even know bow bugs existed. Usually my bow hairs only break if they get caught on the bow holder when Im taking it out of the case.
Have you ever tried burning your hair? Like just one strand. I have and I dont think it smells so maybe its the rosin on the horse hair? Either that or it really is synthetic. Next time try to burn it in your back yard so you can escape the smell 
I burned some suspicious hair today and I saw little globules and other burned materials and I thought that the color of the globules was gold like rosin until it went up in black smoke.
My point is that a burn test should work and probably does under the right conditions but rosin might complicate the result.
It's much better to be sure when buying a bow about exactly what the hair material is. I can only suspect that the cheaper bows would include some with synthetic.
Now, the worse part is to decide if I want to rehair the ruined bows. I have three others so I might just skip it.
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LOL globules <-- loving the new terminology! Yea I suspected rosin might change the results a bit :S Sounds like you have quite the bow collection going on there.
The bugs? That's probably what happened to my first Chinese fiddle that my dad's friend gave me. I left home for two years, it was left out not being used at all, when I came home, the hair all deteriated.
i actually think the rosin protects the hair.
BTW, Oliver, according to the article that Barry posted, the bugs likes to live in the instrument case. i guess keep using it and keep rosin it is the best way to keep your bow "healthy."
Bow hair test:
My bows and my daughter's bows all came with KK's cecilio violins. I think they probably only cost about $10, like my Chinese fiddle bow. I burned the hair, it stunk! There's a horse barn near my work place, we often smelled the odor when they put horse shoes on the horses, and the smell was like that, much stronger than human hair or nail. I don't think the rosin complicate the odor, rosin smells like the pine tree sap.
If it is a synthetic, it does not smell as bad. If you fish, you could cut a bit of your fishing line, burn it and compare the smell. Synthetic hair usually smell like burnt rubber.
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whoa barry going back to the rocker days ey? did u play another instrument before the violin? electric guitar maybe?
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Barry said:
Im guessing that ya'll have never lived my life...LOL, Ive used to have long hair back in my rocker days...I know what burnt hair smells like
I hear you Barry. I'd be surprised if not everyone here knows what burned hair smells like. I have hairy arms and have burnt that hair doing bbq's on open fire pits hundreds of times.
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
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Fiddlerman said:
Barry said:
Im guessing that ya'll have never lived my life...LOL, Ive used to have long hair back in my rocker days...I know what burnt hair smells like
I hear you Barry. I'd be surprised if not everyone here knows what burned hair smells like. I have hairy arms and have burnt that hair doing bbq's on open fire pits hundreds of times.
LOLOLOLOLOL too funny ... omg that's kinda rank when you think about it though
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so switching to the fiddle mustve been quite the change then
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So I was viciously playing my violin today in attempt to avoid work and to get started on violin 1 for the chrissy project... then one of my bow hairs broke so I did a test where I burnt some of my hair, bow hair from my 2 bows and fishing wire. Check it out: Experiment.
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You may have a career in movie making. I loved it. I think I know more what to expect now with burnt hair. LOL
Thanks
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
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