Chris,

When examining wood peices for infestation you first look for flight holes.
They should be readily apparent. If there is active fras (it looks like tiny
fresh sawdust) then it is pretty certain you have an active infestation. I have
often encountered pieces with numerous flight holes but with an inactive
infestation (many wooden artifacts from the Europe, for example, have such beetle
damage ). Sometimes too you'll find knawed sections where rats or other rodents
have damaged the wood - but they are easy to spot! You just need to examine
the pieces very thoroughly with a strong light.

Termites are more of a problem as they can leave minimal evidence of thier
presence on the surface but extensive galleries inside. Usually you can discern
their presence by tapping on the wood - a hollow sound or any change in sound
signifies you may have a nasty problem there.

Do you have the wooden pieces bagged yet. That is the usual procedure too.
Bag them up in heavy mil plastic to contain any potential pest problem to those
pieces lest they infest any thing else in the building. Leaving them bagged in
this way for several weeks will also allow you to monitor them to see if
evidence of infestation is present.

And of course having an Integrated Pest Management Program (IPM) in place in
your musuem or historic site is essential to catching any probelms early and
preventing them in the first place.

These days there are many options for the treatment of infested pieces as
long as they are not absolutley huge. Anoxic treatments (oxygen deprivation) is a
fairly low-cost approach and entirely non-toxic, as is freezing for some
types of objects. If a whole historic structure or musuem must be treated the
fumigants such as Vikane can damage certains types of objects in collections - so
it's best to check with a conservator before going ahead with that.

Cheers!
Dave

David Harvey
Artifacts
2930 SOuth Birch Street
Denver, CO  80222
303-300-5257
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