[Nhcoll-l] Pest control in Insect Collections

Mon Apr 8 14:38:19 EDT 2013

Filipe,

Pete has given you good advice and I would say the same except as he says, while numbering and tracking the drawers and their history is a good idea, it is not very practical at the Smithsonian.  The manual periodic inspection (possibly once a year) is very practical and cost-effective.  You just have to train the staff what to look for, i.e., various kinds of damage.  The pests you have may be different ones than we have in Washington, D.C. or California; however, still the kinds of damage are similar.  At the Smithsonian we do use sticky traps in all collection areas and in staff offices just to monitor the different collection areas.  We pick the traps up and check them every 3 months to see if/where there are pests and which pests.  We also use some UV traps to catch random flying insect and/or pests in parts of our collection areas.  However, as you do, we pass everything coming in through a minus 25C freezer.  We are taking out the Naphthalene, but off-gasing can last a long time and it should be repellent during that time.  Infested drawers could be fumigated with a killing agent (not Naphthalene) or better frozen.

At the Smithsonian we do have temperature control, but the RH may vary considerable at different seasons. The optimum temperature is probably between 20-23 degrees Celsius and between 47-52% RH. but the colder the better to minimize pest development.

Our collections are in metal tight-closing cabinets and some are on electric compactors.

How large is your collection (approximate number of specimens, cabinets, drawers, etc.)?

I hope Pete and my information is useful to you.

David

________________________________
From: nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu [nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Peter T Oboyski [essig.museum at gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, April 08, 2013 1:49 PM
To: Luis Filipe Lopes; NHCOLL-new
Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] Pest control in Insect Collections

Filipe,

I recommend using sticky traps mounted below ultraviolet lights (standard museum pest monitoring traps) as well as regular inspections of the collection. There are certain groups that are more likely to get infested than others. In particular, large bodied specimens (dragonflies, large beetles, butterflies, large moths, etc.) and parts of the collection that are not used very often. You are more likely to notice damage in groups that are visited more often, so make an effort to inspect all drawers/cabinets equally. Once you find damage inspect all the other drawers nearby. And be sure to clean the unit trays and/or drawers before putting them back in the collection so you can detect fresh damage more easily next time.

I recently started tracking individual drawers with unique numbers. This allows me to review the history of a drawer: when it was first put into service, each time pests are detected (hopefully never), when it was last treated and how (eg. frozen, naphthalene, etc.), and when it was last curated. It is a lot of work to back capture all of the drawers (and probably not possible in a big collection like the Smithsonian). But once all the drawers are entered into a database it is easy to add new information. We have ~11,000 drawers. Perhaps you can do this by cabinet rather than by drawer.

Pete

On Mon, Apr 8, 2013 at 2:42 AM, Luis Filipe Lopes <llopes at museus.ul.pt<mailto:llopes at museus.ul.pt>> wrote:
Hello again,

David and Peter, thank you very much for the replies!
In our Museum there is also no entries of new material to the collection
room without going to -20ºC for some days.
But neither the room nor the cabinets are isolated, plus like I said before
there is no environmental control, so there is a big worry about
infestations.

So you never use any kind of insecticide for pest control, unless your
inspections find something wrong?
How do you inspect your collections? I know in some places it is done
through insect traps. Is that the system you use? Or you just look at the
specimens for signs of degradation?
What is the best way to do this control?

David, but In the Smithsoniam you do have climate control, right? Are the
collection room or cabinets self-contained?

What conditions do you keep the room at, temperature and humidity? Do you
keep them bellow 18ºC?

We pulled out the naphthalene last year, but they are still off-gasing a
lot, the room still has a very intense odour of naphthalene.

Thanks again for all your help.

Filipe

National Museum of Natural History and Science
Rua da Escola Politécnica, 56-58
1250-102 Lisboa
Portugal
Telephone: +351213921855<tel:%2B351213921855>

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Date: Thu, 4 Apr 2013 12:54:57 -0700
From: Peter T Oboyski <essig.museum at gmail.com<mailto:essig.museum at gmail.com>>
Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] Pest control in Insect Collections
To: "nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>" <nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>>
Message-ID:
        <CAB3NqE4pR78FoNvrfmi+j5CmvR88ftxFG6viF-_F7eQ1GeGHdQ at mail.gmail.com<mailto:CAB3NqE4pR78FoNvrfmi%2Bj5CmvR88ftxFG6viF-_F7eQ1GeGHdQ at mail.gmail.com>>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

We stopped using naphthalene and pulled all the crystals from the drawers
before moving to a new building four years ago. Our new space has much
better environmental control and the windows are sealed (as opposed to our
previous building), but our drawers are in open-faced compactors and not
closed cabinets. So I still worry about infestations. Our only defense is
vigilance and regular inspections - so far, so good. But, of course, no
organic materials are allowed through the museum door without spending a few
days in the -80 freezer. This is probably the most important aspect of our
(anti-) pest program (well worth the investment).

Last month, our Environmental Health and Safety department sampled both our
new and old space for naphthalene and PDB (which we used occasionally). We
were curious whether the old wooden drawers were still off-gasing much and
if there were any health concerns. In both spaces ambient naphthalene and
PDB were below detection levels and there was no human health issue (within
4 years of removal). We still keep our types in closed cabinets - and the
air sampled from these cabinets detected very faint traces of naphthalene,
but well below health standard limits.

Pete
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------
Peter T Oboyski, PhD
Collections Manager & Senior Museum Scientist Essig Museum of Entomology
1170 Valley Life Science Building
University of California, Berkeley

mailing address:
1101 VLSB, #4780
Berkeley, CA 94720

http://nature.berkeley.edu/~poboyski/
http://essig.berkeley.edu

essig.museum at gmail.com<mailto:essig.museum at gmail.com>
510.643.0804<tel:510.643.0804> (work phone)
510.847.0360<tel:510.847.0360> (cell phone)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------

On Thu, Apr 4, 2013 at 12:10 PM, Furth, David <FURTHD at si.edu<mailto:FURTHD at si.edu>> wrote:

> If your insect collection is less than 2 million, and if your
> collection is inside cabinets (wood or otherwise) I would suggest
> stopping the use of Naphthalene (absorbed into wood, paper products, and
off-gasing for years).
>  Instead use a team of trained staff (4-6) to inspect the collection
> at least once a year.
>
> At the Smithsonian we stopped applying Naphthalene many years ago and,
> in fact, have an active program to remove any existing crystals of it.
> There are methods to suck out the impregnated gas, but they are rare
> and expensive.
>
> ________________________________
> From: nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu>
> [nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu>]
> On Behalf Of Luis Filipe Lopes [llopes at museus.ul.pt<mailto:llopes at museus.ul.pt>]
> Sent: Thursday, April 04, 2013 1:54 PM
> To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>
> Subject: [Nhcoll-l] Pest control in Insect Collections
>
> Hello All,
>
> I have some doubts regarding pest control in insect collections and I
> was looking for some advice in what the best practices are regarding
> this matter.
> In our Museum, the insect collection was kept pest-free using
> Naphthalene, though due to health issues of the people working with it
> has been decided to stop using this product, which I think works as a
> repellent and no insecticide. The room where the insects are stored
> still has a strong odor of naphthalene impregnated probably in the
> wooden cabinets, though we are not sure if this strong odor is enough to
keep pests out.
> At the moment, pest control is done monthly with Piretrine, which is
> supposed to have an insecticide action for 3 weeks.
>
> This plan seems to be too expensive to keep, so I would like to know
> if there is any alternative pest-control method which does not rely on
> the monthly Piretrine treatment.
>
> The room does not have any temperature control or ventilation system,
> so this is also not an option.
>
> I would really appreciate any advice you could provide on this subject
> or if you could point me to some good guide about pest control in
> insect collections.
>
> Thank you very much.
>
> Filipe Lopes
>
> National Museum of Natural History and Science Rua da Escola
> Polit?cnica,
> 1250-102 Lisboa
> Portugal
> Telephone: +351213921855<tel:%2B351213921855>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Nhcoll-l mailing list
> Nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:Nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>
> http://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/nhcoll-l
>

_______________________________________________
Nhcoll-l mailing list
Nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:Nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>
http://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/nhcoll-l

--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Peter T Oboyski, PhD
Collections Manager & Senior Museum Scientist
Essig Museum of Entomology
1170 Valley Life Science Building
University of California, Berkeley

mailing address:
1101 VLSB, #4780
Berkeley, CA 94720

http://nature.berkeley.edu/~poboyski/<http://nature.berkeley.edu/%7Epoboyski/>
http://essig.berkeley.edu

essig.museum at gmail.com<mailto:essig.museum at gmail.com>
510.643.0804 (work phone)
510.847.0360 (cell phone)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------