Case making clothes moths may be killed by freezing, however, How the
freezing is done is important.


1.      Clean the item - gently brush off casings and frass. Get ALL of it.

2.      Bag the item - isolate it in a sealed microenvironment.  In English,
this means put it in a thick clear plastic and tape it up.  Write the date
on the outside of the bag.

3.      Freeze it for a week.

4.      Thaw it overnight but do not take it out of the bag.

5.      Check for ANY evidence of renewed infestation.  If you find any -
repeat from step 1.

6.      After all evidence is gone, leave it bagged for a month, check and
resume treatment is necessary.

There are three issues here.  When you freeze the item, you kill all the
larvae, but do not kill the eggs.  By thawing it, you stimulate the eggs to
hatch and start the cycle over.  You have to repeat the treatment until all
the viable eggs have hatched.  Secondly, some critters can survive slight
freezing through a means described to me as converting some body fluids to
glycol.  I'm no entymologist, I don't know.  I do know case making clothes
moths are tough.

Finally, bagging the infestation ensures it does not spread.  Clear plastic
will allow you to check the item wile still bagged.

We successfully used this programme to treat infestations in collections in
the Northwest Territories for years.  You don't need extreme temperatures,
but at least -20 C. should work.


______________________________________________________

Barbara J. Winter                                         tel: (604) 291-3325
Department of Archaeology                          fax: (604) 291-5666
Simon Fraser University                               email:  [log in to unmask]
Canada  V5A 1S6

Another damned, thick, square book! Always scribble, scribble, scribble!
  Eh! Mr. Gibbon?
     -- William Henry, Duke of Gloucester, upon receiving from Edward
        Gibbon volume II of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1781).