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) ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).