Pest problems

Yes sir, I deal with bugs on a daily basis and is why I stopped collecting toys and especially plushes. I'm from the Bay Area and I once threw out over $300 dollars worth of toys and plushies, I definitely had some rare shit in there like the E 012 Gamma Resaurus figure CIB and I just acted on a whim to try to get rid of these bed bugs. I absolutely regret it because years later and these fuckers are still around, exterminator after exterminator no matter what I do they come right back. I think it's a building thing, not just my apartment. Fuck the Bay Area do not collect if you live here. Anyone else got stories? I just wanted to get this shit off my chest.

>>6394604
ouch, what were they? the pests i mean?

>>6394634
he said bed bugs
>>6394604
yes they live in electrical sockets and shit so it is a building issue
but use tons of food safe diatomaceous earth, put it around your bed and bed liner and wall edges

>>6394637
dear god, sounds horrible as fuck

can carpet beetles cause harm to inorganic toys?

>>6394658
at most i would think that if they died on or in the toy their juices could stain the plastic but it's probably unlikely

>>6394604
Why'd you throw out $300 worth, what ruined your collection the bugs or the exterimator treatments?

>>6394862
depending on the bug, they will shit on the plush and discolor the fabric and reproduce over all of it that you will just toss it.

>>6394976
What kind of bug exactly?

I just found I've got a few dead carpet beetles trapped inside a bag for a harvest moon cow plush i got awhile back. Was wondering if I should try opening and cleaning it or tossing it.

>>6394658
seconding this question, i've noticed a lot recently

>>6394604
>I think it's a building thing, not just my apartment
Yep. Dosen't matter how clean you are if one apartment has bugs the rest are going too as well. You should have taken this up with the landlord and had him/her spray the entire building.

>>6395033
bed bugs

>>6394637
>but use tons of food safe diatomaceous earth, put it around your bed and bed liner and wall edges

This apparently works extremely well, but if you're in a residence like an apartment and they're still living elsewhere, then more will just move back in after you clean it up.

The only option for keeping bedbugs out of an area is to keep the diatomaceous dirt on the floor forever.

If you're curious, it works to kill bedbugs by giving them cuts and gouges on their exoskeletons as they crawl across it, which causes them to eventually die from a combination of weakness and dehydration.

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>>6395255
>>6395033
you know why they are called carpet beetles? They infest and attack carpets, fabrics, uphoilstery etc. They themselves don't eat IIRC, once they become a beetle all they do is reproduce and die. Their eggs get laid in fabrics or collections of fur and hair so the larva have food when they hatch. so you might have some eggs laid in that plush. I would look up treatment guides and see if there are any ways to ID for sure if the plush has anything.

>>6395456
Obviously you should move your stuff out of the room, but wouldn't something that can cut bugs like that up damage toys as well? I've seen it's practically a powder on yt vids though but that'd just mean it'd get everywhere while trying to apply it.

>>6395542
The diatomaceous earth is totally safe for toys, it's not about how it cuts the bugs (Which is used against snails and slugs when used in gardens) but how it interacts with the oils and waxes in their exoesqueletons, causing them to dehydratate.
Also, since its particle size is so small I guess the only way to mess up a toy would be to hardly press a bunch of the stuff against its surface and try smearing it, and still it would be worse if you did the same thing with sand. Keep in mind this thing is originated from deposits of microscopic algae with silicous shells.

As long as you don't eat it or directly sniff it for prolonged periods of time, it's safe.

>>6395542
think of it like this, these bugs are tiny, the size of bits of pin heads in some cases. The particles of the dirt are so small that when compared to the bugs you can think of it like caltrops to humans. They are just way too small to be harmful to us or our property. The toys will be fine.

>>6394976
That's foul.

>>6395590
This is extremely helpful and relieving information, thank you immensely.

>>6395646
Thanks as well

>>6394604
I lived in an apartment building with bedbugs before. It was here in the Bay Area too, in Santa Clara. It really is a nightmare. I'm sorry, bro.

>>6394862
Have you ever dealt with bedbugs? They are terrifying. You don't want to give them a single spot to live or hide, let alone $300 worth of plushies.

>>6397394
I was just unsure if he meant bug phobia or actual damage to the objects.

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>>6394637
>>6394644
A roommate thought he had bed bug bites a while back. I ended up breaking the lease and moving the fuck out of there. Still not sure if there were any bugs or if it was just a skin condition he had. Sadly I ended up tossing out hundreds if not thousands of dollars of stuff thanks to vague exterminators and sever panic attacks (in addition to depression) that I had to go to the doctors for. Never found any bites on me or bugs in my room. In hindsight I wonder if the exterminator showed my roommate a stinkbug that got in from the broken window screen and proceeded to charge the landlord for an expensive extermination.

I still have a number of figures in plastic bags in plastic bins in a storage unit. Plus boxes of comics and books in an another outdoor one.

>>6397663
This is me right now, the panic attacks i mean, I've got almost all my figures stored up in plastic boxes, about 4 boxes worth, also have some games taking up two boxes.

I'd love to get them set out and displayed but i've got springtails flooding in from the back cellar door where my shelving was and there's only so many other spaces upstairs. At this point i'm thinking of just turning a guest bedroom into a study-esque room and putting my collectibles on display in there.

>>6397500
Do you have any idea how hard it is to exterminate bed bugs? once you got an infestation, it is HIGHLY advised that as part of the extermination process that you replace anything that was infested. You just can NOT be sure that every egg or bug got killed by the treatment, they are way too resistant to what is legal to use on them. so it doesn't really matter if the stuff themselves were damaged or not, you have little choice in the matter unless you want to take a big risk.

>>6397797
Just stick shit into the freezer if you want to keep it.
Most anything will die if they're in there for a couple of days.

And googling it, 4 days below 0.

>>6397663
This might scare you, but:

In my experience, bed bug bites happen in straight lines. So, if you have like four itchy bumps not that far from each other and all in a straight line, then look out. Also, you'll be finding new lines of bumps a few times a week.

If you have just 1 bump or 2 bumps but on different parts of your body, it's not bed bugs.

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>>6397898
this

it works on other bugs like dust mites on your plushies/pillows

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>>6397951
I didn't have any bites and when my roommate went to the doctor, they found he had an allergic reaction to something and put him on medication. I haven't asked him if they conclusively found bed bug bites, but at this point it doesn't matter.

What's done is done.
What's lost was lost.
I just want to move on.
I don't want any drama. There was enough with him and another roommate that moved out from another place.

Plus now I just gotta organize my shit. Oh and organizing stuff at my dad's house so I can eventually move stuff out of storage. I got my old stuff back home and over 30 years of his disorganization to deal with.

>>6397696
blech. I found a buncha earwigs and ants outside on the back porch I cleared out. A few inside.

>>6397898
It needs to be a below 0 F industrial freezer. Most freezers don't get that cold. If you live in the north, a good cold winter freeze works. That or just leave them double triple sealed in bags in storage to starve them to death. It takes a couple years tho.

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I put some of these sonic pest things in a storage room. Anyone had luck with these? I put it high up so the sound would get clear of boxes.

>>6398302
I wouldn't bother with them, they have very mixed results. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't, some machines work on some of the things they claim to affect and some work on others. They work best on rodents, no doubt about that, but unfortunately with that sound going off regularly, the rodents get use to the noise and it no longer works n them.

Even in the research they post to back up their claims so the FTC doesn't attack them, they never ever show a complete elimination. Only a decrease in overall pest presence. So back them up with other more traditional measures.

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>>6398320
Well. I guess it will at least keep chipmunks out. Had a couple get in through the garage when taking out the trash bins. Found one of them dead in a bin from starving all week there.

>>6394604
Bedbugs die in a mild heat
You could've plastic wrapped them and submerged them in hot, but not boiling water, to cleanse them. The plastic and fabric would've been fine if protected from the moisture, and the mild heat wouldn't do any damage. After that you can keep them sealed or clean them from time to time.

I clean anything preowned using that method, or sometimes even just straight in the water if it's hard plastics only.

>>6398476
It took me way too long to realize what you were saying thanks to that image

>>6398636
I thought he was talking about getting bugs away from his Alvins until you made me double check

>>6398296
>It needs to be a below 0 F industrial freezer. Most freezers don't get that cold.
What armpit third world country do you live in?
Almost all modern refrigerator freezers can go below 0. I currently have mine set to -5 and it can go to -20.

freezers are best method of killing bugs living in your toys or eggs even.

I saw a silverfish on my hot toys t-1000.
that thing moves so fast, I knock down 4 figs and lost the guy

>>6399075
Fuck silverfish seriously, they're so disgusting.

>>6399075
>>6399091
Silverfish are pretty harmless though. Never had them attack me at least.

>>6399091
>>6399124
they don't taste as good fried as the name suggests

>>6399124
I thought silverfish could ruin books or something, don't they do something to printed ink?

>>6398636
>>6399044
Fucker wanted a hula hoop. Glad I stuck him in a bin and he starved to death.

>>6399180
they also consume clothing

>>6399365
So they shouldn't really damage any figures that aren't cloth related at least.

Can bugs actually discolor figure paint? Never heard that before

>>6401462
They can poop on it

>>6394490
my display is in my basement, bugs have shown up there obviously, but never in or close to any of my figures, but this thread has me paranoid now

>>6401473
I've got springtails flooding into my back door and I basically brushed off everything and moved it all elsewhere, thankfully if i missed any they won't breed, but i'm up a shit creek basically.

>>6401473
Oh what i was trying to say was if you're seeing any bugs regularly and wanna know how bad the situation is, get some sticky traps and lay them around edges and by the door.

>Keeping figures in the basement

I'm surprised people on /toy/ do this, basements are terrible for any sort of collectible.

>>6404450
this

especially when mold grows

>>6404477
On that note, unrelated to the topic but do you think you need to worry about mold spores on figures, wouldnt regular cleaning be good enough to prevent anything

>>6405262
there's a verboten pastel 80's toy that can collect mold in its porous vinyl. it's definitely a possibility if they're in a bad environment.

>>6405291
As someone who collects the personal miniature equines I can assure you that problem is mostly because as children's toys that are more than 30 years old, they've been played with in rough conditions and stored in attics for long periods of time.

Its a pain in the butt but you can clean the mold out without too much difficulty.

>>6405446
I just had a toy with this issue, what'd you use to clean it out?

Do house centipedes damage anything?

>>6406631
Hot water, soap, and elbow grease. Sometimes a sponge that's coarse helps if it's tricky. The hot water will help open the plastic pores.

TFW spiders are helpful but keep setting up near my display

>>6407204
They eat other pests but they're fucking ugly

>>6411929
You don't find tiny things with hundreds of tiny feet and tiny beady eyes cut

I've found tiny black dots in some of my drawers i was storing some figures in, likewise the one room i was using for storage has carpet beetles in it. Should i bother with an exterminator or will regular cleaning starting from now probably be good enough?

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I just ordered bifen to spread across the lawn becuase i've been having problems with fleas and ants, it got so bad they were coming into my study where i keep my shit. Hopefully it works, I keep my house relatively clean and don't leave stuff around so i'm baffled why they're attracted inside.

I feel bad for people who live in humid warm areas where its just impossible to keep the creatures out.

Other than regular house spiders and centipedes, and the occasional "once-in-a-decade" mouse that finds its way in, I never get any pests.

The house I live in now, we had the tiny brown sugar ants, but after spraying, they disappeared.

I had friends who had bedbugs in their apartment and they sprayed and sprayed and sprayed to get rid of those fuckers. Landlord blamed them and was getting pissed at them, but as it turns out the whole building was infested before they even moved in.

Sadly, in those cases the only thing you can really do is just move the fuck out and never look back.

>>6417082
>I had friends who had bedbugs in their apartment and they sprayed and sprayed and sprayed to get rid of those fuckers. Landlord blamed them and was getting pissed at them, but as it turns out the whole building was infested before they even moved in.
Hope your friend sued for damages. Bedbugs can really fuck you up

>>6417085
Your stuff that is. They probably won't kill you, the person, but they'll ruin your stuff and drive you insane

>>6417085
>>6417086

They tossed a lot of shit, but mostly upholstered furniture, blankets, and plushies and shit.

I remember going over there one time after they bombed and all their stuff was thrown in a pile in the middle of the room, covered in plastic. I'd probably die if that had to happen to my shit.

I can actually deal with most bugs, but I'd probably freak out if my shit got infested with either bedbugs or cockroaches.

>>6417101
>I remember going over there one time after they bombed and all their stuff was thrown in a pile in the middle of the room, covered in plastic.

That's just sad

bump for interest

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I've had a lot of issues in the past with spiders building webs on my shelves but I found a solution in a thread from a long way back.

Spiders seem to either taste with their legs or are just otherwise pretty sensitive to certain scented materials and cleaning solutions so a good trick is to utilize essential oils.

Here's what I did:
- pick out an essential oil with a scent you like (you'll be smelling it so enjoying it or at least being able to tolerate it for a while is a must). I went with lemongrass but lavender is another common option, but like I said, find a sent you think you'll like. They're pretty cheap on amazon and for the amount you'll use each time, you get a lot.
- get yourself a spray bottle
- last, you'll need dish soap but you probably already have some laying around.
- fill the spray bottle just about full with warm water.
- Add 5-10 drops of the essential oil for a small spray bottle, more if you have a larger one or just want a more prominent smell and higher concentration.
- add just a teensy bit of dish soap, like a drop or two. You just need enough to help break up the oil and help it mix with the water.
- put the cap on and shake the mixture and you're good to go.
- remove objects fro the shelf you want to treat and spray the shelf as well as areas on the wall just around the shelf. You can either let the solution dry on it's own or if you're impatient/sprayed way too much, gently wipe it with a paper towel and then let it dry.

I've done this on all of my shelves and it seems to have actually worked as I treated the shelves almost a year ago now and haven't had any spiders returning. The toys themselves are still vulnerable but because they have to crawl along the shelf to get to them, they haven't been back to leave more webs.

It also works great for pretty much any area you don't want them building webs in like ceiling corners and such.

>>6420880
I've read about using oils like that but it seems like you'd be ruining your display?

Isn't the scent of the oil going to seep into the toys eventually, especially if you have them right on top of the spot?

Someone suggested using Cedarwood oils for my bug issues but I was told the smell would stick around on the figure long after the effectiveness wore off

>>6394604
That just saddens me to read about. Ugh.

>>6421172
It's so diluted with water that it's not going to affect anything long-term. Like I said, you're only using a few drops of the stuff and with the bottles the oils come in, it's pretty hard to fuck up and add too much. Plus, you wait until it dries before putting your stuff back on the shelf. You can even run your finger across it after it dries and you shouldn't even be able to tell that anything is there.

If you're spraying it on woods, there's a chance it could start warping the wood but that's kind of up to your own discretion, like don't go spraying heavy amounts of it on untreated and unprotected wood or anything you don't want ANY risk of ruining. My shelves are all coated in paints or varnishes and you really don't need to spray much on them so I have yet to see any issues. I also wouldn't use it on a detolf or other glass cabinet because A. the closed environment already mostly works to keep them out and B. the oil is just going to smudge the glass.

As far as the smell seeping into the toys, it doesn't really happen. As it dries, the smell largely fades from what you spray it on. It's mostly the stuff that hangs in the air that you're smelling for a while. After it's had some time to dry, there isn't enough on the shelf for the human nose to be able to tell without pressing your nose directly to the surface and after a single light treatment to my shelves well over a year ago I haven't seen or smelled any damage to my figures but it is enough for spiders to pick up on so they stay away.

I know a year doesn't seem like too much for proof but for reference, my house has a finished basement and the master bedroom is downstairs, as is most of my displays. Because it's still a basement, spiders will come and go within a month and leave cobwebs everywhere. After the treatment, the amount of cobwebs popping up dropped drastically to the point where we only see them every few months and only in places we can't really treat or that we missed.

>>6399065
You sure you're not confusing F and C? -5 Farenheit is -20 Centigrades, and I've never heard of anyone setting it to that

>>6421748
This is a lot of good and helpful information, thanks

Do you guys think stronger insecticides applied outside of the house could cause any damage to figures inside? silly question but noticed this thread and figured why not ask

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What kind of weather do ya'll live in?
I'm in southern Brazil and while there's plenty of things outside on the summer, like spiders, mosquitoes and shit, there's hardly any in doors pests.
All the stories in this thread got me kind of spooped because I plan on moving to the US.

>>6394658
Their shit is acidic and will leave a mark if left unattended for a long time, just like fly shit; as >>6395462 says, they look for the organic stuff that's trapped between the fibers of synthetic fabric and fur, ruining everything in their wake.
They're also called museum bettles because they feed on taxidermy animals and whatnot (this includes flakes of our dead skin and all the trash of which dust is made), I had a dessicated lizard inside a glass case (it was a really cool specimen, it had died in battle with some ants, many of them were still attached to it) which was devoured by those suckers, they somehow spread trough the house causing an outbreak. The best way to deal with those fags is to kill the adults on sight and keep everything dust free, you can't really use chemicals because you need to know exactly were the larvae and eggs are located, the adult bettle can fly and it's always moving so it's pointless.

>>6429927
Brazil afraid of bugs in the US? Nuts

>>6394490
I'd look for airtight food storage jars. Might not be the prettiest setup, but you can be certain assorted small devils won't get in. Drop in some rice grains to suck up any humidity in the air if that's a problem.

>>6394604
The paranoia is the worst part. Had an invasion of two kinds of fur-eating beetles and one grain-eater at the same time. Didn't toss anything even if I had a sleepless week. Managed to wipe the grain-eaters and one fur-eater by bothering to clean thoroughly, using a caulking gun to block hiding places and shortcuts, forcing them into the open and then catching with tape. The remaining fur-eaters are getting rarer and magically show up when spring comes.

>>6431983
>airtight food jars

Did you actually do this?

>>6429927
Aww, isn't he an adorable little fella?!

Fuck bugs

>>6437111
No not at all

How would I go about cleaning bug guts off one of my figma boxes? Was gunna try microfiber towel but wanna make sure I won't make it worse

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This seems like a decent place to ask, but is it safe to spray insecticide in a figure room?

Obviously not on the figures, and being mindful of them when treating. I mean like baseboard, crack and crevice BTW, not bug bombing

>>6446915
Bump for this

>>6446915
Insecticide changes a lot for specific bugs.
The basic one for flies and mosquitoes should be fine, they're mostly water based.

>>6450231
I'm talking about Cyfluthrin, although I'm using a water based version of it in an aerosol can for windowsill and crevice treatment. I'm also going to be treating the yard with bifen but I figured most stuff sprayed outside is fine as long as the windows are closed when and after application

If anyone knows shit about this stuff it'd be cool. I'm definitely covering stuff

>>6445138
Just use a towel with a little water and soap mixture. It shouldn't be dripping wet, just damp

>>6399180
They will eat the colored print layer off books, boxes, and cards. They will also crawl into sealed packaging if there's any opening, and die in there. They will also leave a greasy smear where they die. They pretty much destroyed my MoC Star Wars collection after I put it in storage.

>>6451109
All my toys handled bugspraying just fine, but I did have a slide door covering them from direct contact. Put some thick towels and shit on top of them.

>>6456279
It's safer to use 91% alcohol.

You don't want to add water to cardboard. It can get pretty ugly and can start to form mold or make it easier for bugs to be comfy wth your boxes.

That said, keeping boxes around like this is gross and exactly why they should be trashed.

>>6456581
Alcohol can remove the ink from boxes

>t. some guy who did that exact same thing but with a RD box IIRC

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>>6456586
Most printed cardboard stock have a varnish on top to prevent that.

The only things i ever found to have complete trash for protection are 2005-2012 DC trade covers.
Everything else, even normal books from the 80s and 70s, I've had no problems with.

Also, i find it hard to believe that Gundam model kit boxes have better cardstock than a fucking shitty toy box with only text all over it.

On the other hand, i can understand why they'd protect awesome art like this and not give any protection to shitty text boxes.

>>6456476
I figure i'll get that plastic tarp you'd use for covring stuff while painting.

If you're still here, could you answer some shit? Like how often do you spray down the room your collection's in, and what pest problems were you having?

Reading this thread makes me wish I never started buying toys some times. The thought of some disgusting little shits crawling around grosses me out. All I've had to deal with so far is the occasional house centipede or gnat that usually aren't anywhere around my figures

>>6458000
House centipedes crawl literally everywhere, although at most i imagine they'd crawl on your displays and not the figure itself, so with regular cleaning you'd be fine

>trying to figure out more storage room
>clearing out some old empty boxes and rusty junk my dad had in the corner of the the laundry room under an unused work bench
>find a dead mouse that looks like it's been there a decade

>>6457979
We do it a couple of times every summer.
It's not really a pest problem, we just get brown recluse spiders in here. They like getting inside the house and hiding inside shoes, between clothes and inside drawers. Their bites cause severe necrotic wounds, so it's better to not take risks.

>>6460327
That's disgusting, i'm in the same boat though need more storage room but afraid of cleaning out some of thje places

>>6456586
>>6456581
So when cleaning boxes with alcohol just use 90% and it likely won't damage anything?

>>6475272
why