Fumigants

[Doug Yanega]

>Thanks everybody for your help! I've purchased some of those pest strips this
>morning, and what I did was put a good size chunk in each drawer to hopefully
>kill all the dermestids. I can't believe they aren't in wider use, since they
>don't smell at all (opposed to moth balls) and they actually KILL the
>dermestids instead of deterring them like naphlene. Are there any adverse
>effects of these pest strips?

Vapona was reported to be cancer-causing years ago, and most entomological
collections that had been using it stopped. I can't think of any
institutions that still use it, even though private collectors still seem
to. May relate to potential lawsuits more than anything else, since the
data I've heard on toxicity seems a little iffy (hard to imagine otherwise,
given how easy it is to buy the stuff for home use). This is a case where
it really would be nice to know the truth of the matter, since it *is* so
effective against dermestids.

Peace,


Doug Yanega       Dept. of Entomology           Entomology Research Museum
Univ. of California - Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521
phone: (909) 787-4315
                  http://www.icb.ufmg.br/~dyanega/
  "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
        is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82