Hello.  I was hoping to get feedback from those of you who have experienced
freezing textile collections to kill pests.

A few months ago we discovered live carpet beetles (and plenty of dead ones)
in our costume/clothing collection (95% dresses, mostly from late 19th c.,
mostly silk or cotton) .  Our pest control people need us to clean
everything out of our three infested, small textile/costume storage rooms so
that they can do a "crack and crevice" treatment.  In the meantime, we plan
on freezing our costume collection to kill the pests.  This is our plan:

--place each item in a thick poly bag, making sure to pad the shoulders and
folds with acid free tissue.  Try to get out all of the air without
squishing the textile.  Seal bag.

--place a few bags in a box; seal, label, and inventory the box.

--place box in freezer for two weeks to kill the pests (the local grocery
store is donating space in their huge freezer which maintains a constant
temp way below freezing).  We will have about 25 boxes of textiles to
freeze.

--remove box after two weeks and keep in cool room until we place the
textiles back in the pest-free storage rooms.

These are my basic questions:

--should I freeze the textiles for two weeks?  what is the minimum amount of
time to freeze pests so they die?

--should I take special precaution with freezing costumes made of certain
materials?

--is there a rust danger when freezing and thawing costumes that contain
metal elements (like buttons, clasps, etc.)?

--anything else I should know or be aware of before implementing my plan?

Sincerely,

Jarrod Diels-Roll
Curator
Pejepscot Historical Museums
159 Park Row
Brunswick, ME 04011
207-729-6606
207-729-6012 (fax)

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