OMG; tarot-destroying bugs...

I'm thinking different types of glue might not like very low temperatures.

So be careful with books that have glued spines, and anything held together with tape. Try some other method with those.

But plain paper should be just fine.

And another thing:

I've noticed that some smells seem to keep bugs away; cedar is one such smell, and also I've never noticed bugs anywhere I keep my incense. I keep a pack of incense in my tarot box. Also, in my sock drawer and my underwear drawer and my closet.

As you all know, some incense smells a lot better in the pack and when you burn it it just stinks. But this way, even bad incense is useful: My socks now smell like roses.

Marina said:

I'm sorry Le Fanu, I wasn't saying that you don't store well your decks. I'm sure you must be very careful - I was just giving general instructions to other people.....I didn't mean to offend you

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Gosh no! I knew you weren't I knew it was a general "you" as in *one*... By the way, those termites you mention here and in another post are they what in Brazil we call cupim? Nightmare things...

Your post comforts me as I see - as BrightEye also said - that they don't really go for laminated stuff. I can't imagine them chewing on decks like the Place Vampire Tarot or Printed in Italy U.S Games stuff. Even LoS are - I hope - sufficiently laminated not to be nibble-able. Normal cardboard is easy to chew, lamination less so. And most decks now have at least some lamination on them (I'm clutching at straws here!).. But I have a few (Royal Fez Moroccan tarot, Pamela B, Rider & Co RWS, Meneghello Besançon, vintage Thoth boxes) which have no lamination whatsoever. I think also that even if a silverfish nibbles the very corner of a single card, it ruins the whole deck!

(For others reading, the 1JJ Swiss box is not the two part red one with the Sun on the cover (that cardboard is quite hard), it is a flimsier outer box that the deck used to come in during the 1980s.)

We have a product that you can buy here (a white, talc-like dust) and you spray it around the skirting board/wainscott (rodapé in Brazil!), close the house up for 24 hours then go back in and just hoover up the dust....

Ohh, i am sorry to hear this, Le Fanu!!! Horrible! I will ask my mother tomorrow morning what you should do, she knows stuff like that.

zan_chan said:

That is absolutely horrific.

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Zan, for your own sake would you PLEASE keep out of all threads whose titles mention wildlife of any kind!

I'm thinking of your mental comfort, here.

Le Fanu said:

All I want to hear is that someone here has had them and no they don't eat decks (come gregory and allay my fears!). Only boxes...Like I say, it isn't an infestation, but worrying nonetheless...

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*I* have had them, and they eat books. Particularly vintage books. I'm a bibliophile with about 8,000 books, so it has been known to be a problem.

They're not good at plastic - I'm hoping your Sheridan-Douglas and your very recent waterproof USG decks with the new glassy laminate will be safe.

I use flea-powder when I have to. It's remarkably good, and serves a double-function of acting like fanning-powder, too!

Don't inhale, though. Got any scuba equipment?

Annabelle said:

No house is ever "clean" enough to keep them out. And on summer evenings, the ground is crawling with them outside. They especially love hot concrete on summer nights -- it is quite distressing to be out for a walk and realize that you are crunching roaches under your feet, literally, because there are hundreds of them on the sidewalk.

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Sounds like my part of the world. Cockroaches are not a sign or poor hygiene.

Oddity said:

Keeping hats in your freezer is also great for making visiting friends confused.

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<falls about the floor laughing>

Le Fanu said:

Gosh no! I knew you weren't I knew it was a general "you" as in *one*... By the way, those termites you mention here and in another post are they what in Brazil we call cupim? Nightmare things...

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Yes, they are the terrible cupins. Eek. The most awful creatures ever after mosquitoes!

Le Fanu said:

Your post comforts me as I see - as BrightEye also said - that they don't really go for laminated stuff. I can't imagine them chewing on decks like the Place Vampire Tarot or Printed in Italy U.S Games stuff. Even LoS are - I hope - sufficiently laminated not to be nibble-able. Normal cardboard is easy to chew, lamination less so. And most decks now have at least some lamination on them (I'm clutching at straws here!).. But I have a few (Royal Fez Moroccan tarot, Pamela B, Rider & Co RWS, Meneghello Besançon, vintage Thoth boxes) which have no lamination whatsoever. I think also that even if a silverfish nibbles the very corner of a single card, it ruins the whole deck!

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There's no way they'll nibble your Bob Place's "Vampire", unless they are a new super species of silverfish with adamantium teeth. Don't worry about your over-laminated US Games decks either!

For the fragile decks, I'd suggest putting them in bags or in more resistant boxes. Plastic bags work too, but don't seal them, 'cause the paper need to breathe. Just keep them in a drawer or a place you ensured was silverfish-free and they should be safe

Le Fanu said:

We have a product that you can buy here (a white, talc-like dust) and you spray it around the skirting board/wainscott (rodapé in Brazil!), close the house up for 24 hours then go back in and just hoover up the dust....

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That's a good one to use then! Seriously, if you are worried about your deck, you may consider spraying them inside the drawers, cupboards or on the shelves in which you keep your decks. I believe this powder doesn't damage furniture, right?

That would probably be exactly the same stuff marketed here as flea powder, recommended for rubbing through pets' fur and sprinkling on carpets and their bedding. Nasty chemical smell? Makes you thirsty? That's the stuff. It'll kill you, but it'll kill the bugs faster, so you'll have the grim joyousness of watching them die first.