[NHCOLL-L:55] Re: vapona

[Dennis Paulson]

>We currently use vapona (DDVP, also known as Bio-Strip) as one of our
>steps for fumigating specimens when they are removed from the dermestid
>colony.  We are investigating alternatives to vapona.  Is there a chemical
>or method less hazardous but still effective?  We have also used vapona in
>the past as a way to fumigate individual cabinets when insect activity was
>suspected.  What are some alternatives for that?  What is used in other
>collections for these activities?  I know about anoxia but am not fully
>informed about the effectiveness, feasability, and convenience of that
>method.
>
>Bill Alther
>Zoology Collections Manager
>Denver Museum of Natural History

This collection has been using Vapona for decades, and some time ago we
concluded that it's of almost no effect against small dermestid beetles
(Anthrenus verbasci and Attagenus megatoma) the larvae of which are fairly
severe chewers of bird and mammal skins.  Our problem is that we have
wooden specimen cases, and these small beetles can get in them, and it
doesn't seem to matter if we have just replaced the Vapona strips.  We've
been working for several years to try to eliminate them but haven't been
able to yet, so it's a constant effort to try to locate specimens that are
under attack.  Those we freeze thoroughly.  Now we're actually freezing
whole cases at a time, but with an almost total confidence that there will
always be a population of beetles to reinvade debeetled cases.  Few of our
old specimens are chewed--it's almost all the newly prepared ones--and we
think most of the old ones had arsenic paste applied to them.

I would be interested to know if anyone still uses Vapona and considers it
a successful repellent.

Dennis Paulson, Director                           phone 253-756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History                 fax 253-756-3352
University of Puget Sound                       e-mail dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416
http://www.ups.edu/biology/museum/museum.html