airtight storage how?

[Eric or Pat Metzler]

Jim,

Good suggestion.  Just make sure you keep it away from green
Lepidopterans.  In my experience, the green leps lose color immediately
when close to the vapona-like materials.

I fumigated my collection thoroughly a few years ago, and now I use
nothing.  I just keep the air tight containers closed all the time. 
Anthing that comes into the house for the first time, new, goes into a
separate fumigated cabinet, in the basement away from people, for
several months, and then into the main collection where I use no
fumigants.  Since the main collection is near the living areas, I'd
rather sacrifice a few bugs than my health.  The trade-off isn't worth
it.  I inspect the collection from time to time, and so far no pests.

I use the air tight cabinets that Leroy Koehn's company used to make,
and are now made by Viking in Chicago.  They're not cheap, but much
better than several thousand dollars a day for cancer treatments.

Cheers to all,

Eric

Jim Taylor wrote:
> 
> 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.
> >