Ah, Museum-l...from the sublime to the ridiculous...

First, as with any other "infestation" you'll have to figure out what's
attracting them and deal with that. (That part you already knew.) There are
a couple of people who specialize in Pest Management in Museums. Tom Parker
is one (try 215-284-6249) and Wendy Jessup is another (try 703-528-4339).
Maybe you can have the shingles treated with something like a hot pepper
spray. Non-toxic but not very appealing to small fuzzy animals. Nix-a-lite
won't deter squirrels, they climb right past it.

Second, to remove the animals once they're inside, please call your city and
ask if they supply "Have-a-Heart" traps. These are live animal traps that
allow you to remove the squirrel without, oh say, killing it and creating
even more infestation problems as you then have to deal with the dermestids
that eat dead squirrels. And your collections as well, dermestids aren't
that picky.

Third, if you can't get a Have-a-Heart from Oak Park, you CAN buy them at
Menards, or Ace, or maybe even a pet store. My city loans the traps to
citizens but there's a waiting list to borrow them. The animal control
officer even checks and removes the full trap.

Fourth, Please don't use moth balls or paradichlorobenzene. It is EXTREMELY
harmful to you, your visitors, and your collections. (Benzene--get it?)Get
the MSDS if you don't believe me or contact Monona Rossol at ACTS (Arts,
Crafts, and Theater Safety) for her fact sheet. PDB is toxic and a
carcinogen. I don't give a tinkers d-n that you can buy it in the drug
store. Please don't.

Fifth, not only is PDB toxic, it is known to cause chemical changes to other
materials. It will color shift textile dyes, for example. Here's a fun
experiment. Put a few mothballs in a sealed container with a Styrofoam (tm)
cup. Wait a week. Examine the cup.

Better Living Through Chemicals was the rallying cry of a bygone era, it
ain't the way to practice Pest Management in a museum.

Climbing down from my soapbox now,
Diane Gutenkauf


On Fri, 24 Aug 2001 09:02:54 -0500, Susan Lerner <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

>I have a rather strange question to ask those of you in museums that have
wood shingles on the roof of their building.
>
>We are having squirrel infestation problems at our historic house museum.
The squirrels are eating through  the cedar shingles on the roof of our
museum.  Has anyone ever encountered these problem before?    If so is there
any humane solution?
>
>Thanks,
>Susan Lerner
>Collections Manager
>Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust
>[log in to unmask]
>

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