airtight storage how?

[Jim Taylor]

Liz:
Bioquip sells a version of the old Shell NoPest Strip which I have been
using for several years.  Nary a dermestid, and no odor.

Jim Taylor
-----Original Message-----
From: Liz Day <lday at iquest.net>
To: leps-l at lists.yale.edu <leps-l at lists.yale.edu>
Date: Sunday, October 11, 1998 8:38 PM
Subject: airtight storage how?


>
>My bug collection is stored with a lot of naphthalene, so I've always kept
>it somewhere away from me where I wouldn't have to breathe the naphthalene
>(like a closed room somewhere else in the house).
>
>Until now.  Now I've moved to a 1-bedroom apartment, with no outside
>storage space.  The only space is the space I live in.
>
>Is there a good way to seal the collection so that none of the napthalene
>fumes come out?  (My interpretation of this is, if you can't smell the
>mothballs, then no fumes are coming out worth worrying about.)
>
>The collection is housed in about 8 or 10 of those little museum trays
>with the styrofoam in the bottom, the ones that fit inside Cornell
>drawers, but there are no Cornell drawers.  The trays, some with open
>tops, are inside RubberMaid plastic food-storage containers with lids.
>The napthalene is inside these containers too.  I have about 6 containers.
>(It's a small collection, but important.)  This method has kept pests out,
>but the containers reek of mothballs, even with the lids closed.
>
>Does anyone have any creative suggestions on housing this stuff so it is
>effectively airtight?   I will have to live and breathe with it 24/7.
>
>Thanks,
>
>Liz Day
>LDAY at iquest.net
>Indianapolis, Indiana, central USA - 40 N latitude, zone 5b.
>