Hantavirus

[Dave Nereson]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Joel Jones" <jajones2@facstaff.wisc.edu>
To: "Allan Gilreath" <agilreath@mindspring.com>
Cc: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Saturday, April 17, 2004 3:53 PM
Subject: Hantavirus


> allan
> Saw your email in the archives about  hantavirus as I was searching for
> info.  I just returned from a service call at a college to fix a
'sticking'
> damper.  Instead I found a big mouse nest made of stringing braid, and
felt
> bits from the action.
>
> Have you been involved with cleaning  a piano after  a mouse has used it
for
> his nesting?    What guidelines do you follow?


    Norman Cantrell, an RPT in Oklahoma, I believe, did a class on this at
the Kansas City convention a few years ago.
    He had done much research on the subject and suggested wearing
disposable overgarments, like hospital scrubs, latex or vinyl gloves, and a
charcoal filter painter's mask or respirator.  All mouse residue, nests,
dead mice, etc. were misted down first with rubbing alcohol in a spray
bottle, then carefully picked up with a small scoop and home-made
mini-dustpan without raising dust and deposited in large zip-lock freezer
bags or bio-waste bags.         T
    Then the whole piano was sprayed down (misted, with a
household-cleaner-type spray bottle) with plain ol' rubbing alcohol, which
keeps down the dust and does kill the virus.  The alcohol evaporates fairly
quickly and doesn't harm anything, apparently.  A disposable paint brush is
used to further "paint" areas with alcohol, and paper towels used to wipe
up.  Double-bag the trash.  If any vacuuming is done at all, a vacuum with a
water filter or better should be used.  (I don't know what other filters are
available for vacuums).  Screwdriver handles, etc. should be wiped with the
alcohol when you're done, and wipe your gloves with alcohol before removing.
Clothes should be laundered with bleach in the water and dried with high
heat.
    Keybeds and bottom boards can be sealed with shellac or brushable
lacquer to seal in the smell.  I suppose if the action is "trashed", other
measures will have to be resorted to.
    He also gave the number of the Hantavirus Hotline at the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention as 1-800-532-9929.

    I tend to avoid the job altogether.  ("Sorry, I don't work on
mice-infested pianos -- danger of hantavirus."  Oh, I s'pose I might do it
for some customers, but would charge a pretty penny for my risk, rounding up
all the stuff, taking all the precautions, disposing of the waste properly,
then educating the customer on how to avoid the problem in the future.)
    --David Nereson, RPT