Today, a lot of things that people use daily are contained in bottles, whether it be drinking water or shampoo used in bathing every day. Seldom do people know that these daily conveniences are produced through a large scale process with the help of the technology of a filler machine.

The demand for products contained in bottles is constant that is why businesses must produce at an efficient pace to accommodate people’s needs. Companies that manufacture beverages like sodas and beer, condiments such as vinegar and soy sauce, and other cooking and food ingredients have all benefitted from using filling equipments in their respective factories. The same goes for manufacturers of cosmetic products, such as shampoo, cream, lotion, and more.

Liquid packaging solutions like cosmetic filling equipment are efficient means of producing products today. In plants and warehouses, filling operations of bottles average around 80 to 100 per minute. This speed in production cannot possibly be achieved by simple manual operations.

Since filling equipment are purely machine operated, only a few personnel are needed to operate it. This helps the company save money for expenses since there will be no need to hire a lot of laborers. The operations can be done through a push of a button since most liquid filling machines are automatic. With a mix of conveyor belts and sequential and symmetrical filling of bottles at a very fast pace, liquid filling equipment have proven to be a big benefit to bottling companies today.

The one difference with using filling machines in liquid packaging from doing manual filling is consistency. Filling machines are capable of filling bottles in constant amounts depending on how it is programmed, unlike with hard labor which is prone to error or miscalculations on the operator’s part. It is not that manual liquid filling labor cannot make the same quality of bottled products as machines, but machines are more capable of producing faster and more consistent.

In a time when the consumer industry is prospering, bottling procedures of companies must be able to provide for the demands of the public. Cosmetics, beverages, food ingredients, pharmaceuticals, and such businesses will need the efficiency of filler liquid equipment. The fastest way to reach consumers in the market is to produce quickly and effectively, and the way to do that is through the use of liquid filling technology. So, improve your business’s competitiveness in the market, and get the latest liquid filling technology suitable for your products.

First of all, a regular forest usually consists of one dominant species of tree – the evergreen forests of colder climates, or the redwood forest of California, for example. A tropical rainforest has many species of trees and plants, and trees of the same species very seldom grow close together. Scientists have counted as many as 300 different species growing in one 2 1/2 acre (one hectare) in a South American rainforest.

While forests are found in all climates and all parts of the world, tropical rainforests are found only in hot, humid climates. They cover less than six percent of the Earth’s land surface. Most are found in areas near the equator such as Central America, South America, Africa, and Southeast Asia. A rainforest often gets more than 100 inches of rain a year, the average humidity is between 77 and 88 percent, and the temperature is usually between 93º F (34º C) and 68º F (20º C).

Probably the most significant difference between a regular forest and a tropical rainforest, and the one that has scientists worried that rainforests might someday totally disappear, is the fact that whereas most of the nutrients of a regular forest are stored in its vegetation, most of a rainforest’s nutrients are stored in the soil. This means that when a regular forest is burned or flooded or cut down, the trees and plants can eventually grow back because of the nutrients in their roots. But in the rainforests, where thousands of years of heavy rain have washed away many of the nutrients in the soil, it is very difficult for vegetation to grow back after it is burned or cut down.

Unlike a regular forest, a tropical rainforest has four very distinct layers based on the types of trees and animals that live there. From the top down, these layers are the emergent, upper canopy, understory, and forest floor.

Emergent trees are 100 to 240 feet tall and are spaced wide apart with straight, smooth trunks and leaves that form umbrella-shaped canopies. The upper canopy consists of trees that are 60 to 130 feet tall. Most of the animals live here.

Most of the trees in the understory, or lower canopy, are about 60 feet tall. Very little light reaches this level, the humidity is always high, and there’s little air movement.

The forest floor is almost totally shaded. As a result, there are very few bushes or herbs, and a person can easily walk through most parts. But you have to be careful where you walk, because the ground is teeming with termites and other insects, earthworms and fungi that feed on the litter that falls to the ground. Approximately 80 percent of all insect species live in tropical rainforests.

Interested in this subject? Try this link http://www.globio.org/glossopedia/article.aspx?art_id=6 for more information!

The first thing to consider when choosing a backpack is the size. You may be tempted to buy a large backpack: perhaps 50-80 litres. This is almost certainly not what you want. You want to think about packing as light as possible, definitely under 15kg in your pack. The best backpack for travelling is probably 30-40 litres, which allows for everything you need and stops you from packing extraneous things which you’ll seldom use and will hurt your back.

The best backpack for travel will also be light. Surprisingly, many backpack harnesses and materials are unnecessarily heavy. You need to consider the durability of the material against the type of use you’re likely to put it through. Some ultra-light materials can be very durable but will rip if caught in an airport conveyor belt. If you’re flying often consider tougher material.

The best backpack for travel must be able to be locked. If you have a hiking-style top-loading bag, it’s unlikely to be easily locked. You may need another “overbag” to cover and lock it for flights, left luggage, and when you leave it behind in your hostel or hotel room.

The size and shape of your backpack is possibly the most important factor, however. There’s no amount of reading that can help you with this: you need to try the bag on, with some weight in it, and enlist the help of a friend or shop staff to fit it correctly. You might find the harness doesn’t sit right on your hips or around your breasts. You might find the length is too long or too short – creating pressure in the wrong places.

At the end of the day, the best backpack for travelling around the world is a personal decision, but you can learn a lot by reading travel blogs and asking the people who have been travelling for a long time. There’s a lot of people willing to help with your travel plans.

When most people consider their insurance needs, only certain types of coverage typically come to mind. Health insurance and life (or sometimes disability) insurance protect you and your loved ones; car and homeowner’s or renter’s insurance protect your major tangible assets.

Personal liability insurance, frequently called an “umbrella” policy, seldom makes this list. But when a rainy day – or an expensive lawsuit – turns up, sometimes nothing but an umbrella will do.

As the name suggests, personal liability coverage mainly exists to protect against claims of liability. In most cases, that means finding yourself, and your assets, the target of a civil lawsuit. A personal liability policy may seem like overkill for individuals who already hold three or four insurance policies. It is true that not everyone needs such protection. But an umbrella policy effectively defends your assets and future income against damage claims that can arise from a wide variety of scenarios. Much like flood insurance for beachfront property, liability insurance is a product you hope you never need to use, but one which can create substantial peace of mind in the meantime.

Who Needs Liability Insurance?

Some level of personal liability coverage is built into homeowner’s (or renter’s) insurance and auto insurance. For many people, this may be sufficient. In part, this is because some types of assets are shielded by state and federal law. For instance, a court cannot force you to use qualified retirement accounts, such as 401(k)s, to pay a legal judgment, and most states have laws protecting traditional IRAs. Some states protect Roth IRAs and other retirement accounts, too. Many states also protect your primary residence, though the precise rules vary; Florida, for instance, offers very strong protections in this area, while other states may only shield a certain level of home equity.

You can also protect certain assets from lawsuits through estate planning tools, such as properly structured and funded irrevocable trusts. However, be wary of setting up such trusts directly after an incident you fear may trigger a lawsuit. If it looks as if you are simply trying to dodge future creditors, the courts could determine that the asset transfer is fraudulent, rendering these assets available to pay a judgment.

If you don’t have many assets outside your retirement savings and your primary residence, then your existing liability coverage may be sufficient. But second homes and nonretirement investment accounts are vulnerable. High income earners, and their spouses, may also want to consider their coverage options, since courts have been known to garnish wages to satisfy judgments.

While the amounts vary by geography and insurance policy, homeowner’s insurance usually includes up to $300,000 of personal liability coverage. Auto insurance typically covers up to $250,000 for each person and $500,000 per accident involving bodily harm, and less for incidents that involve property damage only. Yet lawsuits for serious accidents can sometimes result in judgments or settlements for millions of dollars. This is where umbrella policies kick in.

Most people think of car accidents as the main trigger for such lawsuits, and with good reason, since car accidents are relatively common and can cause a lot of damage. But there are a wide variety of situations in which you can find yourself liable for an accident. You may host a party at your home where one of the guests is seriously injured. Your dog may bite a stranger or acquaintance. If you employ household staff, such as a nanny or home health aide, the employee could sue not only because of physical harm, but also for wrongful termination or harassment.

There are other liability risks that may not spring to mind so easily. For instance, the hyperconnected world of social media creates many more opportunities to libel or defame someone, even without deliberately setting out to do so. Your teenage or preteen children could also create such problems; in a worst case scenario, they could end up involved with a cyberbullying incident or harassment that takes a tragic turn. Teenagers also increase your liability when they get behind the wheel. Even adult children can trigger “vicarious liability” statutes that may leave you personally liable in certain circumstances, such as if they borrow your car and are then involved in an accident.

Another area some people overlook is the risk of sitting on a board for a nonprofit organization. Many nonprofits are too small to offer much, if any, protection for board members’ personal assets in cases where the organization and its board of directors are sued. Board members may wish to consider directors and officers insurance specifically, as well as or in lieu of an umbrella policy. People whose charitable work – or whose professional activities – put them in the public eye may also want to consider increased liability coverage due to the potential damage a lawsuit could do to their reputations as well as their financial health.

When considering the need for personal liability insurance, it is also worth considering the common law concept of “joint and several” liability. In many jurisdictions, a plaintiff can recover all the damages from any of multiple defendants, regardless of fault. In other words, if four defendants are all found equally liable, the plaintiff can recover 100 percent of damages from one of them and nothing from the other three. Many lawyers thus concentrate on the defendant with the highest net worth in such cases, under the theory that this method is the most likely to secure the largest payout for their client.

How Much Liability Insurance Should You Carry?

As you can see, individuals with a high net worth, high income potential or both have reason to worry about their liability exposure. Once you have decided to purchase an umbrella policy, the next logical question is how much insurance you should buy.

Unfortunately, there is no specific formula to determine the correct amount of coverage. A good rule of thumb is to carry at least enough insurance to cover your net worth and the present value of your future income stream. A Certified Financial Planner™ or an insurance agent can help you with such calculations, and there are also a variety of tools online designed to help you calculate a figure. Bear in mind that tools and advice from insurance companies will tend to want to sell you more insurance than you may need, but it can still be useful to see what factors will affect your coverage. Some of these are intuitive, such as your current net worth and assets you own. Others are more immediately concerned with the potential for accidents; for instance, you might want more insurance if you own a trampoline or a pool, and you can expect slightly higher premiums as well.

As with any insurance decision, shopping around is a good idea. But there are real benefits to purchasing the majority or the entirety of your insurance products with one provider. Consolidating your coverage will not only ease the administrative burden, but it will also make it easier to spot potential gaps. For instance, if your homeowner’s insurance covers $300,000 in personal liability insurance but your umbrella policy does not kick in until $500,000, you will be responsible for the $200,000 in between. To avoid this, most companies that sell umbrella insurance require customers to increase their base liability coverage to eliminate such holes. Sticking to one company can also make the process simpler in the case of a lawsuit, since you will not have two separate companies handling two portions of your coverage. And bundling can secure discounts on premiums for your various policies.

The good news is that, in most cases, umbrella policies offer a good value. Since catastrophically large lawsuits are relatively rare, companies can afford to spread the risk widely among their customer pool. While the exact rates vary, $300 to $500 annually can often secure $1 million in coverage. This figure may rise or fall depending on the number of homes, cars and drivers in a policyholder’s household, as well as the part of the country in which he or she lives. However, it is almost always the case that whatever you pay for the first $1 million of coverage, the second million will cost less. If $1 million in coverage costs $500 per year, $5 million will almost certainly be less than $2,500.

For such relatively low premiums, personal liability insurance offers substantial peace of mind. In addition to the product’s basic function, some policies go above and beyond. Extras you may encounter include not counting legal defense costs against the coverage limit or offering reimbursement for public relations firm fees to manage the incident’s fallout. Depending on your needs and your lifestyle, it may be worth comparing features, as well as cost, when choosing a policy.

We in the United States live in a highly litigious society. Some of these lawsuits are frivolous; many are not. The reality is that civil suits can, and often do, result in judgments or settlements that run into the millions of dollars, and judges and juries have no obligation to limit awarded damages to an amount the party being sued can comfortably afford. Personal liability insurance protects you in such worst-case scenarios, even if the court finds you entirely liable.

So while adding one more insurance policy may seem unnecessary at first, for people with assets vulnerable to creditors’ claims, an umbrella policy is an economically sensible way to protect against a rainy day in court.

Soil remediation broadly refers to the “repair” and “renewal” of contaminated land. To preserve the sanitation of the area, contaminants in the terrain are treated or removed using various soil remediation techniques. The process of soil remediation is seldom done as a do-it-yourself endeavor, primarily because of the technical and tedious processes involved. More often than not, the intervention of soil remediation experts is needed especially in full-scale property or home improvement operations.

Soil Remediation Solutions in Distinct Groups

The types of soil cleanup technologies have greatly evolved and increased in number because of the growing need for correcting damaged or tainted land. Going back to the basics, soil remediation solutions can pretty much be grouped into two categories: In-situ and Ex-situ. Soil remediation companies should offer services according to these broad groupings:

• In-Situ – refers to soil cleanup techniques which does not require the excavation or digging of the terrain. In-situ methodologies normally involve reducing contaminants in the land through chemical and technical processes such as biodegradation, extraction or oxidation.

PROS: Soil remediation companies offering this type of service generally charge less, thus making this technique less expensive. Moreover, the physical structure of the terrain is preserved as soil digging is not required.

CONS: The treatment effects normally take time to become visible and the uniformity or evenness of the treatment within the soil surface is not entirely guaranteed.

• Ex-Situ – is the type of soil cleanup service that leverage on the excavation of the land to achieve the desired results. Contaminated soil portions can either be treated on-site or off-site. By on-site, the sediments are retained in the location and are treated on the spot. Off-site on the other hand, involves the transportation and transferring of the dug material to another location and subsequently treated in the new area.

PROS: The expected result and improvements using this technique are immediate. Moreover, the spreading of the contamination is mitigated since the polluted soil itself is removed and segregated from the usable portion.

CONS: This technique is more expensive and time-consuming and often times affect the integrity and stability of nearby property foundations.

The role of topsoil remediation experts is undeniably important in every property or land remediation effort. Because of their knowledge, specialization and available resources, customers needing help in their home improvement projects can expect that the desired improvements are achieved without much hassle and work on their end.

Turtles should not be viewed as a novelty when deciding to keep one as a pet. With a fairly long lifespan, these sophisticated creatures could well be part of a family for a few generations.

A popular turtle pet is the Red Eared Slider turtle, although many other forms of turtles are also kept as pets. Without filtration and room to grow, the readily available red-eared brought over as pets ended up being left neglected until the US government banned the sale of less than 4 inch turtles way back in 1970.

Turtle pets require proper lighting, large water tanks and regular cleaning that many turtle owners, even today, are not aware of. Turtles seldom survive overcrowded places in shops and fairs, neglect, and stress during long hours of transportation.

Children run a risk of being infected with Salmonella bacteria borne by a turtle pet. Most pet owners don’t realize that some of their aquatic turtle pets can grow to 12 inches, requiring adequate space and hygienic conditions.

UVA and UVB light-producing expensive bulbs meant for reptiles are required to light up the pet turtle’s tank, without which the pet risks developing metabolic bone disease. Proper temperature, nearly 12 hours of sunlight and enough water – 40 gallon tank with 70 degrees (F) daytime and 80 degrees (F) nighttime temperatures are required to allow the pet turtle to swim. The tank should be cleaned periodically as it can get extremely messy.

Taking your turtle pet out to show to friends and visitors can be harmful. As reptiles, they are cold-blooded and susceptible to changes in temperature. Vegetation in the tank should be non-poisonous as turtles have a tendency to feast on them.

Turtles are messy eaters – feeding them in a tank will help in monitoring their food as well as containing the mess.

Hardy turtles like the Red Eared Sliders, Mud Turtles, Musk Turtles and Cooters are good for beginners while the difficult, aggressive, larger variety of softshell and snapping turtles are not recommended as pets. Turtle pets require lots of attention. This makes them more sociable and a great source of enjoyment for the family.

Turtle owners may want to try and create a natural surrounding as much as possible for their turtle pet, such as setting up a turtle pen. To try and help pet turtles hibernate, some owners have tried refrigerating their turtle pet, which can be fatal during a sudden power failure or rise in temperature when their slumber is disturbed. If your pet turtle is kept indoors, there is no need for hibernation.

Pet turtles can be a fantastic gift to children. However, parents busy at work or home-making will find their children neglecting the pet after the initial excitement wears off, given the enormous attention and cleaning up that is required.

Ambulances are vehicles used for providing emergency or non-emergency transport to a patient outside the hospital or any other medical facility. They carry medical personnel, including paramedics and medical technicians to the required site. They give immediate medical aid and close monitoring of patients on their way to the nearby hospital or emergency room. They also transport patients who are not in the condition of traveling by means of normal vehicles. They have flashing bulbs and sirens which separate them from other vehicles and aid them to reach on their destination in a matter of minutes. The ambulance services are divided into two categories; public services and private services.

Public services– Public services are operated by the state. The fund comes partly from your pocket and partly from the taxpayers. Every area has its own public services and they seldom serve outside their domain. Moreover, the services and facilities provided by the public ambulances are limited and they have some definite terms of functioning. Though they cost a little less, their limitations sometimes require the need for private ambulance services.

Private services– The private ambulances are private organizations which work on a reservation basis. However, the complete cost of booking a private ambulance and providing the requisite facilities are charged by the patient (or whoever books them). Since they are independent bodies, the services they offer are quite flexible and often more convenient.

Advantages of private services over public services

There are many situations where private services are more preferable some of which are:

• Public ambulance services can be available only in the case of emergency. So, in such cases where there is no real emergency and an ambulance is required for the convenience and comfort of the patient, a private ambulance service is necessary.

• Public ambulances have their specific regions of serving and they can carry the patient to the nearest hospitals and they generally do not offer you any choice as to which hospital or clinic you want to go. So, if you are receiving your treatment from a much preferable hospital, which is out of the working area of the local ambulance services, then private ambulance services are your only option.
• Sometimes, large companies or organizations want to keep an ambulance or a few for large events to give medical help for when an emergency condition arises. Of course, public ambulances can’t serve the purpose. Private ambulances, however, will be quite suitable and they can be booked in the desired number for the desired time.
• Patients who are not in the condition of going to a medical facility themselves nor have anyone who can go with them and give the required support may need to call private ambulance services.

Cost of private ambulance services

The cost of private services can vary a lot on the type of services opted. More luxurious facilities will obviously cost you more money.

Based on the number of drinks you and your buddies consume (excluding drinks you buy for women), bottle service could cost higher than the admission or the alcohol served at the bar. However, if you not get bottle service, the night will be more costly if you have a larger group and spend a longer time, plus it will be more difficult, especially for men, to get into the club.

Bachelor Parties

If you want to spend quality time with your buddies in a nightclub, you have to go for bottle service/hosted entrance. The most popular nightclubs seldom let large groups of men enter for hours. Just go to a strip club and return after 1:00. By this time, lines are shorter.

Is Bottle Service only for the Rich?

When a group of 6 to 8 pays $1K for drinks that cost a minimum of $450/bottle, what is the breakdown? It is distributed this way: $1K plus 8% for taxes plus 20% for gratuity plus the cost of the table and hosted VIP entrance. This usually amounts to about $1380 (at $230 per person, though prices may vary depending on the number of persons in the group).

Though the cost of $230 per person seems a bit pricey, this usually includes:

Club cover

VIP entry

No waiting time

Waitress gratuity

Drinks

Luxurious living, even just for a night.

You do not have to wait in line for two hours and wonder, “Why did I come here? Why do people want to come at this place?” Instead, you will be asking yourself why you did not come sooner.

Why Don’t You Just Transact Straight with the Nightclub?

Paying for a VIP service takes care of all your concerns. You do not have to wait or arrive before the opening of club because you are assured of a table. This would also allow you to save on costs. This takes care of everything and may even provide your group with a complimentary bottle.

Additional Perks

As a VIP, you are treated like one, making you feel like a celebrity. Just like royalty, you are treated with greatest importance and respect, whereas others go through the night club like cattle.

There is no need to fight for the attention of the bartender every time you and your friends like a drink. You have your own private table, and come and go as you please.

When you are in a group of guys, you will attract the babes with your table and bottle service. They will practically agree with whatever you say to or just try to consume all your drinks.

It is unfathomable to most people that the person they are dating or in love with could possibly harm them. More often than not it is friends or family who initially see something. They might tell you that something is ‘not right’ in the relationship. It is estimated that more than 60% of relationships have some form of abuse.

American Institute of Domestic Violence reports:

o 85-95% of all domestic violence survivors are female

o Over 50,000 women are stalked by an intimate partner each year

o 5.3 million women are abused each year

o 1,232 women are killed each year by an intimate partner

o Domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women

o Women are more likely to be attacked by someone they know rather than by a stranger

Who is at risk for domestic violence?

o Women ages 20 to 34 and increasingly, adolescent girls

o Women who abuse alcohol or other drugs or whose partners do

o Women who are poor are at greater risk, because they seldom have resources

o Battered women increase their risk for murder when they are in the process of escape or are hunted down and murdered after leaving. (New York City Department of Health)

No matter the rate of violence or who initiates the violence, women are 7 to 10 times more likely to be injured in acts of intimate violence than are men. (Bureau of Justice Statistics).

There are common indicators of potential physical abusers. Instead of negating what others tell you and your thoughts, you need to stop and look at your partner’s actions. Answer the following questions about your partner and your relationship.

o Are you discouraged or coerced about talking with family, friends or co-workers?

o Is he/she jealous of your time, your career, other people in your life?

o Does your partner insist on going everywhere with you?

o Do you have to discuss activity plans, people you will be with, and why you are going to do something with him/her before you can do them?

o Does he/she play mind games?

o Is he/she jealous of your success?

o Does he/she act negatively to authority figures?

o Does he/she believe that the man makes the decisions?

o Does he/she call you names?

o Does he/she belittle or talk down to you?

o Does he/she blame you if something goes awry?

o Does he/she negate your opinion, feelings, ideas, etc?

o Does he/she get violent when he/she drinks alcohol?

o Does he/she come from an abusive or highly dysfunctional home? While not everyone is a potential abuser if they come from an abusive or highly dysfunctional family, there is reason to consider their long-term behavior versus their current ‘win-you-over’ behavior. Signals of an abusive person can be extremely subtle. Such as: Mini-bursts of anger; Frequent swearing; Disregard for other’s rights; Frequent negativity; Mind games; Hostility toward authority; Casting murder and/or abuse as–she/he deserved it.

o Does he/she use shame and/or guilt to control a situation or get his/her way?

o Does he/she lose his/her temper and throw things, hit objects or abuse animals?

o Does he/she down-play any act of aggression as being a minor incident?

o Does he/she characterize domestic violence as an exaggeration or myth?

These indicators are more than indicators–they are varying degrees of emotional abuse and a precursor to possible physical abuse.

Those who are in an abusive relationship seldom consider they are a part of the equation. In other words it takes two people to create domestic violence. How do you fit the equation? Answer the following questions.

o Do you have low self-esteem? People who abuse others seek out people who they deem are easy to control, manipulate and create power-over. Low self-esteem sets the stage.

o Did you come from an abusive or highly dysfunctional home? As noted above being from an abusive or highly dysfunctional family does not mean you will attract an abuser, however, the likelihood is significantly high. Growing up in an abusive and/or dysfunctional home fosters the imprint that the highs and lows of abuse is equated to love–after all the people [your parents], who claimed to love you the most emotionally and physically hurt you. And although you didn’t like it; you then seek out someone who will give you the same ‘kind of love’–the kind that hurts–because it feels so good between the hurting.

o Do you believe in traditional, stereotypical relationship roles?

o Do you accept responsibility for disagreements or arguments–other than your own behavior?

o Do you accept responsibility for his/her behavior to keep the peace?

o Do you walk around on egg shells to keep the peace?

o Do you accept the myths about domestic violence?

o Do you tell yourself–“I can handle it, its not that bad.”

o Do you feel guilty if he/she becomes enraged or jealous?

o Do you allow yourself to be controlled because you believe the person would not do it if they didn’t love you?

o Do you believe jealousy is proof of love?

o Do you believe some abuse is par for the course in an intimate relationship?

These indicators are emotional, but keep in mind that emotional abuse precedes physical abuse without fail. The emotional abuse is simply a warning sign and if you heed the warning sign(s) you can protect yourself by avoiding being in the relationship. If you are already in the relationship, because you missed the warning signs (there are warning signs without fail), you will be able to heed them and get out before they escalate to physical abuse.

If you answered ‘yes’ to any of the questions, you are in a relationship that could progress to physical abuse unless there is immediate and effective professional intervention. You both need to seek separate professional guidance. Accepting that you play a part in the abuse equation and take responsibility for your part is the first step to reconciliation–either resolving the issues or parting company. Likewise, the other person needs to recognize that their behavior is not acceptable and you need to accept you will enable him/her to continue to abuse you if you continue to stay in the relationship as is.

We’ve all heard of “Bed Bugs.” But did you know there are also “Bow Bugs?” Indeed there are — little arthropods (related to moths) that live inside your violin case and munch horse hair. How do you know that your case is infested? There are certain tell-tale signs. One is an accelerated rate of horse hair breakage on your bow(s). Another is the appearance of broken bow hairs in a spidery pattern inside your case. You may even see crawling or dead insects, or discover the exoskeletons they leave behind when the molt.

These bugs like to live in the dark. They are most likely to live in cases that are left closed for long periods of time. Because they abhor the light, they are seldom found in cases that are opened frequently. Fortunately, they do not like to eat violins and, aside from destroying horse hair, they are otherwise harmless. However, once they have taken up residence, they are difficult to eliminate and can be transferred from case to case.

How to get rid of them? It is usually a good idea to buy a new case and to re-hair any affected bows. However, if this is not an option, another alternative is to expose the case and bows to sunlight over a period of several days, which should kill the insects. You may also opt to spray the case with moth insecticide. However, you must then keep the violin in a safe place until the chemical dries, to avoid harm to your violin.

For dealing with “Bow Bugs,” prevention is the best cure. Try not to allow your case to sit unopened or in storage for long periods of time — violinists who practice regularly rarely experience this problem.