Dear Tim,
About ten years ago I had an infestation in a huge new archival acquisition.
A local cold storage facility agreed to freeze our material (two 40 ft semis
full) as a donation to the Museum. If their freezers are working, your
local commercial freezers should not worry about your bugs getting in their
stored food, since the food and your collections should not mix, and the
whole point of freezing both the food and the artifacts is to kill unwanted
critters. Our archival material passed bins of quick-frozen fish and stayed
in its own little -30 f rooms for several weeks.
Maybe you could get a conservator to write a letter to a cold storge place
explaining your need and how it will not affect their other customers. I
got a LOT of helpful advice from Tom Parker. You can contact him at:
Parker, Tom
Pest Control Services
Pennsylvania
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Good luck!
Elizabeth W. Furlow
Curator of Collections
Museum of History & Industry
2700 24th Ave., E.
Seattle, Washington 98112
(206)324-1685 ext.44
fax: (206)324-1346
-----Original Message-----
From: Timothy McShane [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, April 05, 2005 1:36 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Insect eradication on large artefacts
Hi all;
We've got some large pieces (taxidermed animal heads, including a
whoppin' big elk) that are/may be infested. We usually freeze suspect
pieces, but these ones are too large to fit in our chest freezer. None
of the commercial freezers in town want anything to do with bugs coming
in their facilities, which all store food items. There are no freezer
trucks available in town (we're waiting on a quote to rent one from 2
1/2 hours down the highway)--I suspect that cost may be prohibitive, and
I understand they may not be cold enough to do what we want them to
anyway.
I've looked into treating these pieces with chemicals, but I'd rather
stay away from stuff with names like chlorpyritos, diazinon or
pyrethrins....
So, rather than kicking myself for not having been on the ball to take
advantage of some days of our cold Canadian winter just passed, does
anyone have suggestions for non-chemical means of eradicating our
unwelcome residents?
Thanks,
------------------------------------------------------------
Tim McShane, Assistant--Cultural History
Medicine Hat Museum and Art Gallery
1302 Bomford Crescent S.W.
Medicine Hat, AB T1A 5E6
(403) 502-8587
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