The Doll Forum

Oh noes Alotta.

You forgot to add in the ant poison powder!

Try livin in the woods like I. Ants, chiggers, ticks, mosquito's, wood roaches and various other bugs. Mice, packrats, opossums, raccoons, armadillos, etc.
Anything here that has a smell has to be locked away. Preferably in a steel container. I've had critters chew through wood and plastic. They got into my Apple scented dish soap and destroyed a whole bottle of it! LOL.

But sorry to hear about your dolls and thanks for the warning. Any dolls that are silicone may be able to have any small holes filled and do a new surface coat shoot of tinted sealer.

Alottahope wrote:

Can I make an announcement for those of you who may have heard that the use of cocoa mixed with baby powder is a nice mix to powder your darker colored dolls?
This is the worse idea ever for a doll!
If you are like me, I keep some dolls in the basement and guess who found the doll with the mix of cocoa and powder. Yep, You guessed it. Bugs are eating holes in her.
I did not see the bugs but I will tell you the ants found the pale with the mix. Do not ever use this mixture. Back to your regular scheduled program.

The wisdom here at TDF! Just awesome!

well, i just threw up in my mouth. thanks for the nightmare fuel!

Oh that's not good at all!

I hope the bugs won't change into radioactive monsters like it happened in the old science fiction movies of the 50'. After eating the cocoa, baby powder and TPE/silicone mix this could well be the case.

How many Dolls have been affected?

Von Rubber

Well, its back to straight corn starch and the ghostly hue....

Back in 1977, I made a paper mache doll. I used flour and water for glue. A few days later, it became all moldy.

Zebo wrote:Well, its back to straight corn starch and the ghostly hue....

cocoa powder may still be ok for a doll you handle and move around from day to day.
Also depends on how bad your bug problems are.

I'd be careful of Vaseline on TPE as well as rodents may like it? Not sure.

I skimmed a post on CRD about silverfish being a problem, I certainly hope that doesn't become an issue for you AH.

Taylor has used a cornstarch/cocoa powder mix for almost three years, no problems here with any pests. Other than me anyway.

I have been doing the cocoa/cornstarch baby powder mix for just over 4 years now and NO issues at all with any of my dolls! Perhaps it is because of the doll or dolls being in a basement where it can be much more moist to attract pests.

I know of 2 dolls that had small critters of some kind that I never seen chew on both dolls skin and make little pit marks or very small holes (In a Basement) of a house in Maryland that did not have any cocoa powder on them, just ordinary baby powder and the powder was not freshly applied to either doll! One doll had damage on her face near her lips where there was no powder and on her legs and the other doll had damage right in the inside of her one thigh and I bought that doll. Both dolls in a basement with only ordinary baby powder on them and almost nonexistent.

Dodgeman. Probably just the scent of the powder was enough. A mouse could have taken a nibble just to see if it was edible. Scented soap, lotions & power. Candles, Potpourri, seeds, leather. It's amazing what vermin will eat or destroy. I have to buy a $10.00 bag of mouse poison blocks every couple of months to even begin to keep up w/ the mice & rats at my farm.

i had a cockroach which seemed to be sniffing its way toward my doll the other night. the thought of it chewing the cornstarch off her grossed me out beyond words. its not chewing nothing every again. kinda got me worried though about when summer rolls around and they came back in plague numbers.

Yikes! I heard about people finding spiders up in their dolls after storage, but this is far worse. Good tip!