Maintenance Tried-and-tested strategies to keep bjds insect-free?

Disclaimer: I know there's a similar thread from 2008, but the last reply is almost a decade ago - and I think we'd have more experience regarding this topic now, so I'd like to hear from you

As per the title, I'd like to hear some tried-and-tested strategies and input that are bjd-safe if you've had any insect infestations/are trying to prevent infestations on your lovelies!

As a background: I live in a humid and warm country - and whilst that does somewhat keep my bjds in an environment without much temperature fluctuations, I sometimes worry about insect infestations (as we know, insects thrive best in a tropical climate, yuck).

When I first got my first doll (a SWITCH Pavian), I could see one or two booklice crawling on him every three to four days and whilst booklice aren't really... harmful (to the best of my knowledge anyway), it gives me the ick so bad. It's not an infestation by any means, and somehow it got better after a couple of months and I stopped seeing those mini critters scuttling about. (No shade meant to SWITCH, I love that company a lot, but somehow my Ringdoll boy who lives just next door from my Pavian has never had this issue. Maybe it's a resin difference?)

However, I got a SWITCH Yido head three days ago and I placed him with my Pavian. It's from 2018, but still as good as new - and these couple of days I've been seeing booklice again!!! Just one at any one time, but it's like... they don't disappear no matter how many I kill when I see them. (and they run really fast too...) The weather is getting warmer too, so that might also be a factor.

I wonder if they're attracted to new(er) resin - that still give off fumes, and perhaps specific resin types. I only ever see booklice on older books that are never taken out, so it was really a surprise to see them on my dolls.

-

Anyway, I've been considering buying cedarwood oil as a natural insecticide to try and get rid of these pests for good. My boys live in an acrylic display case, and the door is shut most of the time, so my main concern is whether essential oils are safe to place in an enclosed environment with a bjd in it? Has anyone ever tried using essential oil like that? Do oils somehow harm the doll or change it in any way?

I've also considered getting charcoal as a dehumidifier so that these booklice will be less inclined to stay with my boys. Has anyone tried charcoal? I don't think charcoal is going to make the inside environment extremely dry by any means, but just in case - if you do use charcoal, how much do you use at one time?

I'd appreciate any input on any prevention strategies you have, or personal stories you'd like to tell! Thank you

 

@ChilmarkGryphon amazing, thank you so much for your suggestions! I was exactly concerned about cedar oil somehow yellowing the resin... I'm sorry that that happened to your spare hands, but that's definitely good to know. Yikes! T__T

and oh yes, you've reminded me - I used to just pop a couple of silica bead bags from used vitamin tablet bottles (HAHA) into their acrylic cases, but because the bags are opaque, I can't tell when they need to be refreshed (I suspect in 2-3 days, given how humid it is over here). I'll keep a lookout to buy those with colour-change indicators!

the daiso paper is such a good idea, I think it'd be great to place in my dolls' clothing storage shelves too :O!! I have a daiso near me but I've never really walked around sections in daiso that would probably sell this, I'll keep a lookout! I wonder if chloroxylenol somehow reacts with resin though - hopefully not!

 

Oooh, good to know that there's a food grade diatomaceous earth! I was like 'is this really safe to use' when I first read about it HAHA thank you @Kurosakura!! I'll try it out if the silica gel somehow doesn't work out.

 

@soulsoaker gasp!! I never thought about that... it very well could be possible, because I still find it very weird that I'm only seeing booklice on my SWITCH boys. and yes, my Pavian did come strung!

Yido doesn't have a body yet though, but somehow the booklice came back, so hopefully.... it's not actually the elastic, or that'd be troublesome

 

I got a little worried so I took Pavian out for a check at 2am in the morning HAHA as far as I can see, no mould on his neck elastic/arm elastics - not sure about the legs though, hopefully not!

thank you lovelies for all the very useful suggestions today, I really appreciate the helpfulness! I've gone ahead and ordered a couple of colour-change silica gel cartridges too, and thankfully I haven't seen any nasty critters about today

as thanks, here he is at his little acrylic house after I got him checked (Yido is not having the time of his life):

 

@Bittersweet Blue I know right! I was taken aback to see so many experiences with bedbugs/lice/ants from the 2008 post too, apparently resin attracts insects far more than we think it does make me slightly embarrassed to talk about it, but I think we can all gain some insight from this
there are some lovely suggestions here, wishing you all the best in making your doll corner insect-proof! and thank you for your lovely comment!! I'll do my best for him!

@HeyJude Oooh!! That's a great tip, I could do that for my dolls' clothing at least (and I somehow quite like the smell of dried lavender HAHA) thank you! I'm now really considering getting some diatomaceous earth, if only for the ants in the kitchen...

@BlackSheep Oh dear... natural hair wigs are lovely, but they do have that problem huh you went through so much for it! I'm glad it got solved in the end though and yes, booklice seem attracted to mould and glue, which is what makes me really confused! It's a new doll in a new acrylic case with a brand new setup, which I keep clean all the time too (I'm quite fussy about cleanliness), so I really don't know where the problem stems from

 

Update!

In case anyone is still interested in this topic - about 3 days have passed since I attempted the following:

I had a sneaking suspicion that it weren't actually my dolls that was the problem, but the wooden chair LOL temperature and humidity has been on the rise these few days, and I wouldn't be surprised if the booklice were actually attracted to the au naturel commissioned wooden chair instead. The flowers in the vase are preserved and treated with chemicals, and I've never seen any woodlice on it, so I doubt it's a problem.

What I attempted was this:

1. Remove Pavian and Yido from the display case
2. Remove the furniture (chair and flower vase)
3. Wipe down the white acrylic base with 75% alcohol hand sanitiser (I didn't have any alcohol pads on hand, so that had to do. If you somehow attempt this, be careful not to wipe clear acrylic with alcohol - it might turn the acrylic irreversibly cloudy).
4. Place the furniture back.
5. Leave the bottle of hand sanitiser inside the display case and close the door.
6. Wait for 9 hours.
7. Remove the hand sanitiser and leave the door ajar for 3 hours, to 'air' the alcohol.
8. Place dolls back in whilst leaving door slightly ajar overnight.

The setup looked like this:




My theory is that since hand sanitiser with higher alcohol content is also drying, maybe something would work out by leaving alcohol fumes in the air HAHAHA no harm trying!

During the process, I actually observed a total of 4 booklice crawling lethargically on the white acrylic ground.
Of course, they were all eradicated.

Since then, I have not seen *any* booklice at all. Hopefully it stays that way!
(If it doesn't, then I will next remove all furniture from the display case, and only leave my dolls in. We'll see if anything changes then.)

-

Today my silica gel cartridges arrived! They contain 50g worth of silica gel beads, and seem promising




Fingers crossed that this is the end of it!

 

Oh dear!!! Yeah, tropical climates really just breed bugs like nothing else, it's painful Your dolls should be fine in their box, but insects also... somehow... get everywhere and anywhere if they want to

What I've found recently that really does work, somehow, is that I've been putting dried mint leaves in those cotton tea satchets and leaving them in my dolls' display cases/storage drawers, and I've seen no insect go near since then HAHAHA maybe you could try that out too!

 

Oh dear... unwanted passengers I have no idea what they could be, since I'm not from the US, but I really hope they don't get into your dolls! Like BlackSheep suggested, you might want to also vacuum seal things up if you know where they're coming from, but if you don't, you can try out some of the suggestions here (like diatomaceous earth or my trial-and-error with the booklice HAHA) good luck!!

Awesome!! That's such a cool major too if you do post something about how to safely deter bugs without causing any harm to our dolls, please feel free to link it on this thread as well, I'd love to see! the tropical climate really makes it difficult to get rid of, or prevent, bugs in the first place , so it'd be great to have some tips from someone in the know!

Oh my gosh... I sincerely hope no centipede ever gets close to your dolls, I don't know what I'd do either since I've got scoleciphobia, just imagining it is... reading the older thread regarding bugs really freaked me out too!! It might be a good idea to sprinkle diatomaceous earth at the periphery of your display case, just to deter anything from ever going in...