[NHCOLL-L:1764] RE: non-pesticide herbarium cabinet cleaning

[Simmons, John E]

You are wise to presume that pests could be anywhere in the cabinet, not
just restricted to the infested sheets.  You will need to remove everything
from the cabinet for treatment (freezing or an anoxic environment).

How you clean the cabinet will depend on how it is constructed.  If you can
get to all the surfaces, you can use a good cleanser that does not damage
the surface or leave a residue behind.  Ammonia, bleach and alcohol are not
pesticides--they might kill a few pests as a side effect, but they might
also damage the paint and/or metal of the cabinet.  

If the cabinet is constructed so that there are areas you cannot easily
reach, my advice is to (1) clean all surfaces with a cleanser that does not
leave a residue; (2) vacuum the cabinet thoroughly, particularly cracks and
crevices; (3) position sticky traps inside the cabinet, and then enclose the
entire cabinet in plastic (or at least, tape it shut with duct tape).  Leave
it sealed up while you are freezing the contents.  Before you return the
herbarium sheets to the cabinet, open it and check it carefully for evidence
of pest activity.  If possible, lift the cabinet off the floor and clean
thoroughly underneath it.  Pests frequently harbor inside cabinet doors,
under seals, and in crevices created by the cabinet construction.  They can
be very difficult to remove from these areas.  You might also take the
cabinet outside and clean it thoroughly with compressed air to try to flush
out any pests, eggs, or larvae that the cleaning missed.

--John

John E. Simmons
Collection Manager, Natural History Museum
and
Coordinator, Museum Studies Program
University of Kansas
Dyche Hall
1345 Jayhawk Boulevard
Lawrence, Kansas 66045-7561
Telephone 785-864-4508
FAX 785-864-5335
jsimmons at ku.edu
www.ku.edu/~museumst/

-----Original Message-----
From: Travis Marsico [mailto:tmarsic at uark.edu] 
Sent: Wednesday, November 20, 2002 1:16 PM
To: NHCOLL-L at lists.yale.edu
Subject: [NHCOLL-L:1762] non-pesticide herbarium cabinet cleaning

We are trying to establish a policy on treatment of infected herbarium
cabinets without resorting to pesticides. Does anyone know if cleaning out
an
infested cabinet with either ammonia, bleach, or alcohol would be effective
insect control in small scale outbreaks (i.e. a few specimen sheets)? If
not,
are there any suggestions on the non-pesticide control of small insect
outbreaks in herbarium cabinets? We obviously cannot freeze entire cabinets,
although we do freeze specimens. Our problem is what to do with the cabinet
after freezing the infected specimens.

Travis Marsico
University of Arkansas Herbarium (UARK)
Biomass Research Center 141
Fayetteville, AR 72701
(479) 575-4372
tmarsic at uark.edu