[Nhcoll-l] Pesticides in NH Collections

[John E Simmons]

Brian,
When you say "a bit of a cockroach problem," what do you mean?  Do you see
the cockroaches daily?  Have they been eating things in your collection?
Have you done sticky trapping to gauge their density and areas of
concentration?  Does your museum have an integrated pest management plan?

The pesticides recommended may be useful if you are in a situation where
you need to knock back a large population in order to gain control of it,
but there are other solutions to your problem.  I have attached an MSDS for
each product--as you can see, they are not without human health risks.
Both chemicals are designed to linger in the environment for long-term
control, which is usually considered unacceptable in a museum situation.
With all due respect to pest control professionals, their methodology is
usually oriented towards home, office, and warehouse control by repeated
application of chemicals; few have museum working around scientific
collections.

If you are not over-run by cockroaches (overrun meaning that you see
cockroaches everyday and find fresh frass each morning) then you might
consider instead a program of sticky trapping to determine where the
cockroaches refuge and using boric acid powder selectively in those areas.
At the same time, you need to figure out why the cockroaches are in your
building (it usually indicates you have a humidity problem or a cleanliness
problem).

Cockroaches are serious collection pests and people can develop allergies
to their frass, but you should exhaust non-chemical means of control before
using chemicals, and then try using milder chemicals before moving on to
the two recommended to you unless the building has a very large large
cockroach problem.

--John

John E. Simmons
Museologica
128 E. Burnside Street
Bellefonte, Pennsylvania 16823-2010
simmons.johne at gmail.com
303-681-5708
www.museologica.com
and
Adjunct Curator of Collections
Earth and Mineral Science Museum & Art Gallery
Penn State University
University Park, Pennsylvania
and
Lecturer in Art
Juniata College
Huntingdon, Pennsylvania

On Tue, Oct 2, 2012 at 4:32 PM, Brian Sidlauskas <
brian.sidlauskas at oregonstate.edu> wrote:

> Dear NHCOLL Braintrust,
>
> We're having a bit of a cockroach problem in the academic building that
> houses most of Oregon State's vertebrate collections. The pest control
> people want to spray " Tempo SC Ultra" and "Suspend SC" along the
> baseboards in rooms that contain fluid collections as well as preserved
> skins and skeletal materials. Is there anything that I need to be
> worried about before I tell them to go ahead?
>
> Thanks,
>
> -- Brian
>
> --
>
> ***************************************
>
> Brian Sidlauskas
> Assistant Professor
> Department of Fisheries and Wildlife
> 104 Nash Hall
> Oregon State University
> Corvallis, OR 97331-3803
>
> Voice: 541-737-1939
> Fax: 541-737-3590
> Email: brian.sidlauskas at oregonstate.edu
> Web: http://people.oregonstate.edu/~sidlausb/
>
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>



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