My wife has a cold. She has played the flute. It is made of wood, a Casey Burns Mopane to be exact.
What can I do to sterilize it so we can minimize the direct sharing of germs? Material? Methods? Concerns?
Thanks,
This came up on the woodenflute list recently . . . and the archive’s not working right now or I’d summarize it for you.
The least harmful way to sterilize would be to wipe the headjoint down and allow it to dry completely before switching players. Other than that, people talked about all kinds of stuff, all of which might really suck the oils out of the mopane.
Maybe someone else has other thoughts on what might be safe and germ-killing . . .
Stuart
-I’m not convinced an effective solution exists to prevent cold/virus transmission when an instrument of microbiologically porous material is shared. Anything I know of will dry the instrument to a degree, affecting conditioning. -Perhaps a thorough but fast exterior wipedown with a soft alcohol-treated rag, or a quick exterior wipe with gel alcohol hand sanitizer like Purell. (Note: Do not consume these types of alcohol.) I’ve avoided treatment of embouchure or tone hole edges or undercuts as end grain is exposed here, and have avoided sanitizing the bore-an omission which likely reduces the effectiveness of treatment when the next player blasts bore-surface germs up through the tone holes.
-Between limited effectiveness of treatment and wood conditioning issues arising from attempted sterilization-your best bet may be simply wiping off the embouchure exterior before play, then washing hands thoroughly post-play. I’m no expert, and can’t judge sterilization effectiveness vs potential wood conditioning problems, so
I hope you will wait for more experienced advice before taking action.
-Fipplistas with larger flute collections may have good advice on it. (Jessie K, peeplj for instance)
-A pleasant strategy with potentially bad consequences is to obtain a good smooch from one’s coldy spouse to ensure transmission of the bug. This leaves one free to play the flute without concern as to whether it will infect. 
-Perhaps Casey Burns would comment on his measures
for avoiding cold/flu infection as he takes flutes in for service a few years after sale-some of them no doubt from customers having played them with a cold or flu- He will answer an e-mail about it I’m sure-
Actually, every alcohol hand sanitizer I’ve ever seen, both Purell and the stuff we use in hospitals, is ethanol. Just grain alcohol, just like vodka.
I think it’s that way to be nontoxic. I also think there were jokes floating around Canadian hospitals during SARS that hey, at least they can all get drunk on the hand cleaner.
Stuart
I recall the woodenflute list discussion. One main fact was that the cold virus dies quite quickly after being wiped and dried. Vodka came up - ethanol as above - as a great solution. Quick wipe then play and enjoy!
BillG
Yeah, I’m the one who suggested vodka. 
Stuart
I’m with Stuart, just wipe it down and let it dry between players.
There was a study about a decade ago in which they compared wooden and plastic cutting boards in terms of what survives on their surfaces. This was not viruses, but bacteria common in meats and veggies. Although they take longer to dry out and are porous, the wooden surfaces actually allowed significantly fewer bugs to survive than the plastic. (My sister says this was later disproved, but I dunno.) Add to that the possibly hostile characteristics of blackwood, cocus, and cocobolo. . . maybe I shouldn’t be playing a boxwood flute.
Don’t forget that Tea Tree Oil at any concentration over 1/2 % kills every known bacterium .( It makes the little B’s leak ).
Blast you, double dang you, triple drats you! You just blew my lead in for getting a second flute!!! 
Tea tree oil does seem to be the best bet. I will contact Casey and see what he may have to say about the matter.
My mother always said wipe it after youve used it .I didn’t realise till now what she meant .
I hate to point out the obvious, but – well, let me get this straight… It’s your wife with the cold, and all you’re concerned about is catching it from her flute… Hmm..
Colds can be transmitted by flute, especially if passed from player to player, but chances are, you got it from her already. Wipe it, let it dry, oil it between, with or without tea-tree oil, and don’t worry so much about catching her cold from the flute. Tell her to move out until she’s better.
Gordon