Monsters in my piano! Please help!!!!!

[indespair]

Today I saw bugs coming out of my Yamaha Clavinova CLP 440? I am extremely worried and frightened! I don't know if they are termites or something!!! Please help me! I have no idea what to do!

[iansinclair]

"bugs" is a rather generic term... termites are very unlikely; they don't come out in the open.  Two highly relevant questions: first, where do you live?  The variety of potential critters is different in, say, northern Canada, northern USA, southern USA, northern Europe, southern Europe, Thailand, India, Australia -- all places where folks on this forum come from.  Second, what are the "bugs" like?  Size?  Colour?  Wings?  etc.

[outin]

Also where did they come out from and how many were there?

[indespair]

They were very small, ant-like, yellowish and I live in Bangladesh. Quite a few of them were walking around on the wooden portions. They were mostly coming out of the hollow part where the key cover recedes into.

[iansinclair]

I have no idea what flavour of ant you might have in Bangladesh, never having been there!  However, ants is ants, seems to me.  There are two approaches I might be inclined to use.  The first is to get hold of a really good vacuum cleaner, and start by vacuuming in the space between the key cover and the body of the piano -- take any attachments off and really have at it, moving the key cover while you're doing it.  Then if you can figure out how to take some panels off -- they sometimes have screws or clips, but it may take a little ingenuity to figure them out -- take them off, vacuuming furiously the while.  Also vacuum the whole keyboard.  And then vacuum as much inside the piano as you can.  The more you can take panels off and vacuum the better.

Then take the vacuum bag or filter outside somewhere and give the little beggars a new home!

The other approach would be to take a pesticide and spray in where they are coming out -- but there at least three things I can think of wrong with that.  First off, a lot of pesticides are pretty nasty chemicals, and having them around in the house doesn't appeal to me.  Second, the pesticides themselves, as well as the solvents they are associated with, can do real damage to the finish of the piano.  Third, the solvents and so on can also harm the action.

So me?  I'd vacuum.