Does your Lego ever get damaged by pest?

[ks6349]

To put my long story short, I have a lot of unopened Lego sets that have been stored for a few years, I once thought about sealing every side of a box with adhesive tapes but I gave up the idea because I did not want to possibly damage the box.

One year ago, a new neighbor moved in, exactly next to my unit, he is hoarding. From time to time, cockroaches and geckos are seen in the corridor, and garbage smell also comes out, I also once found a silverfish in my home. I don't know if it's time to regret that I did not seal my Lego box sets. I don't normally use any pesticides or mothballs, most of my Lego box sets are kept in my wardrobe, do you think those pests e.g. cockroaches, silverfish, gecko likes to get inside and hide in my Lego box sets? How can I know if my Lego sets are already affected by these unwelcome visitors? Will I see obvious signs or will they just get inside and go away because they don't find food inside? After all, does silverfish bite Lego bricks?

[El Garfio]

Zipper bags or fridge plastic bags sealed with tape could be a solution 

[1963maniac]

i understand your concern for the Legos. But, I would not want to be living next to such a dirty person. I would want to move for my own safety and health.

[ks6349]

I don't want to seal my Lego box with adhesive tapes because chances are the prints on the box could be damaged easily when taking off the tapes. In fact, there is no food and water inside Lego box, will it also attract those pests to get and stay inside?

[MAB]

Sealing the boxes won't do anything. They eat cardboard. If they are in your wardrobe it is because you are hoarding cardboard in there.

[Toastie]

4 hours ago, MAB said:

They eat cardboard.

Yes, and with some appetite: https://taborpestcontrol.com/are-roaches-attracted-to-cardboard/

"Sealing" may not help that much, but storing them in plastic containers certainly does; but they need to be carefully sealed. Plastic bags may help, but make sure that they are not punctured and sealed very carefully. Professional tips: https://callwaynes.com/blog/how-to-protect-your-boxes-in-storage-from-attracting-pests/   

With regard to ABS: Nope. Pests won't do any harm - that's why it lasts for almost ever in the environments: No living beings other than humans with extra money love ABS so much ...

(Well, it depends on how you define "pests" of course )

Best
Thorsten

[MAB]

46 minutes ago, Toastie said:

"Sealing" may not help that much, but storing them in plastic containers certainly does; but they need to be carefully sealed.

Yes, he mentioned sealing the sides with tape. They'll still eat away the cardboard.

[ks6349]

9 hours ago, Toastie said:

Yes, and with some appetite: https://taborpestcontrol.com/are-roaches-attracted-to-cardboard/

"Sealing" may not help that much, but storing them in plastic containers certainly does; but they need to be carefully sealed. Plastic bags may help, but make sure that they are not punctured and sealed very carefully. Professional tips: https://callwaynes.com/blog/how-to-protect-your-boxes-in-storage-from-attracting-pests/   

With regard to ABS: Nope. Pests won't do any harm - that's why it lasts for almost ever in the environments: No living beings other than humans with extra money love ABS so much ...

(Well, it depends on how you define "pests" of course )

Best
Thorsten

New and unopened Lego box sets should contain no food residue and are free of moisture. In that case, is it true that there is little chance to attract pests (that we can find indoors) to get inside the Lego box?

Edited November 21, 2023 by ks6349

[Toastie]

3 hours ago, ks6349 said:

New and unopened Lego box sets should contain no food residue and are free of moisture

As others have said: Roaches and company like to eat the cardboard boxes. Cardboard contains fibers and other nutrients, these individuals like to digest (in case there is no other food available. This is also called biodegradation ...). They also like cardboard boxes as housing.

But before you get nervous, there should be some activity around your storage rooms; one roach cannot digest 50+ boxes. So just check from time to time.

Best,
Thorsten

[ks6349]

11 hours ago, Toastie said:

As others have said: Roaches and company like to eat the cardboard boxes. Cardboard contains fibers and other nutrients, these individuals like to digest (in case there is no other food available. This is also called biodegradation ...). They also like cardboard boxes as housing.

But before you get nervous, there should be some activity around your storage rooms; one roach cannot digest 50+ boxes. So just check from time to time. 

Best,
Thorsten

check from time to time? What to check? How to check?

[Toastie]

2 hours ago, ks6349 said:

What to check? How to check?

Uhmm - pulling out some boxes, looking for "debris", minor damage to the boxes, looking for little animals running around, I mean, the usual stuff, isn't it?

I mean, it appears as if you like your LEGO boxes very much, as you are very concerned about their fate - I guess checking in on their condition is the least you can do, isn't it?

Best,
Thorsten 

[Lyichir]

The good news is I don't think such pests would tend to do damage to the bricks themselves. But there's definitely a risk to the boxes and instructions, and if you were saving the sets for resale you'd probably want to thoroughly clean the bricks before you had any hope of selling them.

[dr_spock]

Cockroach excrements have a distinct aroma.  If you can smell it on your LEGO boxes, then you may have some unwelcomed visitors. Depending on the species of cockroaches you have, they may or may not be able to crawl through tiny gaps in your box flaps. I suppose you could wrap your boxes with plastic food film or cling wrap to protect them. 

 

[Lion King]

I see that you are in Arctic you should not have an issue wiht pests in the cold region (sarcasitcally). 

Back to seriousness, i never experienced anything like this one. But it is terrible to hear that.

it would be best to movie out if I was you. I mean liviing next to that flithy neighbor? No, just no.  

[ks6349]

On 11/22/2023 at 7:26 AM, Toastie said:

Uhmm - pulling out some boxes, looking for "debris", minor damage to the boxes, looking for little animals running around, I mean, the usual stuff, isn't it?

I mean, it appears as if you like your LEGO boxes very much, as you are very concerned about their fate - I guess checking in on their condition is the least you can do, isn't it?

Best,
Thorsten 

I am not concerned about my Lego boxes so much, but no one wants those visitors. If it's easy for any pest to get into and stay inside a Lego box, I will just seal all the sides with adhesive tapes from now on, which is my last option. Because I am buying more than 50 box sets every year and I have such a neighbor.

[Peppermint_M]

Tape will degrade and leave residue - That is a warning I can share! 

In a previous job, I was tasked with archiving a "file room" (It was a weirdly shaped space in an office building that had been given a door to become a room) that had around 30 years of "filing". We were leaving the building and it was to be demolished, so everything in the room had to be repackaged and an actual list of what we had made. (Honestly, I loved doing it)

Tape, some of it less than five years old, had degraded and slipped off, leaving a glue residue on the box/file/paper it was applied to. 

Cling Wrap, for parcels or food safe, would be a good plan if you really want to store long term and sealed up without any damage to boxes. I recall you asking advice on this in the past, so it would be counter productive to use tape.  

As for the neighbour, do you have Environmental Health services in your country? (Artic is certainly not your true location...) Here in the UK, even a private property that becomes a public health hazard can have action taken against it and I believe some counties in the US would enforce clean-up on a very bad property. 

[Lion King]

On 11/25/2023 at 2:15 AM, ks6349 said:

I am not concerned about my Lego boxes so much, but no one wants those visitors. If it's easy for any pest to get into and stay inside a Lego box, I will just seal all the sides with adhesive tapes from now on, which is my last option. Because I am buying more than 50 box sets every year and I have such a neighbor.

If you are not concerned about your boxes, why you created a thread “does your lego boxes get damaged by pest?” . It does sound like you are very concerned about yoru boxes…

Sure no one invites those flithy visitors. But all you do is to seal boxes in plastic gas (if you don’t want tapes leaving residues on boxes), report your neighbor to health service or move out. 

If pests live in your lego boxes, get rid of them.

[Yperio_Bricks]

I guess the best solution to store lego pest and water proof for a long time is to use large plastic boxes and fill them with Lego sets, throw some desiccant silica gel packs in and then seal the plastic box. It's even possible to glue the box and lid together so nothing ever gets in (or out).

[ks6349]

On 11/28/2023 at 2:18 AM, Yperio_Bricks said:

I guess the best solution to store lego pest and water proof for a long time is to use large plastic boxes and fill them with Lego sets, throw some desiccant silica gel packs in and then seal the plastic box. It's even possible to glue the box and lid together so nothing ever gets in (or out).

Most, if not all, large plastic boxes I can find in the market come with loose lids and they are not designed to be closed tightly. In that case, it cannot stop pests visiting. The best and the most convenient option I can think of is to seal all sides of a Lego box with adhesive tapes, but the trade-off is it may damage prints of the box.

[dr_spock]

5 hours ago, ks6349 said:

Most, if not all, large plastic boxes I can find in the market come with loose lids and they are not designed to be closed tightly. In that case, it cannot stop pests visiting. The best and the most convenient option I can think of is to seal all sides of a Lego box with adhesive tapes, but the trade-off is it may damage prints of the box.

You could tape the lids of those large plastic storage boxes to keep the bugs out. But if you're set on taping the LEGO boxes, that's fine too.  It's your stuff.

They also make plastic boxes with a gasket to keep air/moisture/dust/bugs out.  I use them for storing 3D printer filaments.

[ks6349]

3 hours ago, dr_spock said:

You could tape the lids of those large plastic storage boxes to keep the bugs out. But if you're set on taping the LEGO boxes, that's fine too.  It's your stuff.

They also make plastic boxes with a gasket to keep air/moisture/dust/bugs out.  I use them for storing 3D printer filaments.

These locks (i.e. blue locks) usually fail easily within few months of use.

[MAB]

11 hours ago, ks6349 said:

The best and the most convenient option I can think of is to seal all sides of a Lego box with adhesive tapes, but the trade-off is it may damage prints of the box.

This is guaranteed to damage the boxes and will do more damage than a few insects. Why not take it further and destroy or throw the cardboard boxes away. That way, they cannot get infested by insects. 

[KotZ]

On 12/2/2023 at 11:45 PM, ks6349 said:

These locks (i.e. blue locks) usually fail easily within few months of use.

If you're constantly opening and closing them, maybe. But if you're planning on saving the boxes, why even open the container holding them at all, especially if a container is filled? Or find a more reputable brand that won't have the locks fail within a few months.

I have multiple tubs that get opened constantly and most handles are still intact.

[ks6349]

7 hours ago, KotZ said:

If you're constantly opening and closing them, maybe. But if you're planning on saving the boxes, why even open the container holding them at all, especially if a container is filled? Or find a more reputable brand that won't have the locks fail within a few months.

I have multiple tubs that get opened constantly and most handles are still intact.

If you inspect your plastic container closely, you'll find that most, if not all, plastic containers are not closed snugly, almost always there is slit for small insects to get into the containers. There are not so many "more reputable brands" for such items, most consumers tend to buy the cheap one because they don't care about the locks. The best solution I can figure out is to tape all sides of a Lego box with good adhesive tapes, in that way, no insect can go inside the Lego box. Yes, they can bite or feed on the box, but when this happens you will know and you can react quickly. I used to wrap Lego boxes with plastic cling but it is very costly, and unfriendly to the environment, so I don't do this anymore.

[Yperio_Bricks]

32 minutes ago, ks6349 said:

If you inspect your plastic container closely, you'll find that most, if not all, plastic containers are not closed snugly, almost always there is slit for small insects to get into the containers.

The plastic container which is shown few posts up has a sealing and it should be almost impossible for any insect to get into the box.