[Nhcoll-l] dermestid and clothes moth infestation

Tue Jun 10 14:53:12 EDT 2014

Thanks, James, I have heard pros and cons for freezing vs. heating.  Obviously hate to do either, but needing to control the insects.  To avoid condensation I assume we'd have to individually bag each specimen before putting in the freezer, while we can heat whole drawers full of specimens, so figured that would reduce handling-associated risk of damage.  If available I would appreciate more detailed info on freezing vs. heating (and how to avoid condensation-related damage--we have no clean room in which to let things air out, so they would have to go directly back from freezer into cabinets).  My understanding is that for freezing I should cycle them twice through a -20C freezer with a warmup in between.

Is C02 tenting something readily available from pest control companies?  We are in a fairly rural area and I couldn't find anything about this on a quick websearch.  I saw some sites saying there are acidifying problems?  It seems unlikely we could afford this though, especially if it goes on for weeks . . . 

Carola A. Haas
Professor, Wildlife Ecology
Dept. of Fish & Wildlife Conservation
112 Cheatham Hall
MC 0321 Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, VA 24061
cahaas at vt.edu
540-231-9269
http://www.fishwild.vt.edu/faculty/haas.htm

On Jun 10, 2014, at 2:11 PM, Bryant, James wrote:

> For my part, I'd seriously discourage you from using heat as a pest eradication method for specimens, as I understand it accelerates aging and general deterioration. Freezing the specimens would be preferable; large scale CO2 fumigation has been shown effective with entire cabinets and their contents. If the space (and funds) were available, and entire room full of cabinets and contents could be tented and treated with CO2. I would think thorough cleaning of individual cabinets would be effective if the models that you have are well-sealed internally (no open seams at the backs of shelves, compartments, partitions or drawer spaces).
> 
> James M. Bryant
> Curator of Natural History
> Museum Depart., City of Riverside
> 3580 Mission Inn Avenue
> Riverside, CA 92501
> TEL: 951-826-5273
> FAX: 951-369-4970
> jbryant at riversideca.gov 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu [mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Carola Haas
> Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2014 6:56 AM
> To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
> Subject: [Nhcoll-l] dermestid and clothes moth infestation
> 
> Hello all, I am looking for someone who can give me some advice about cleaning cabinets after a dermestid (varied carpet beetle, Anthrenus verbasci ) and casemaking and webbing clothes moth infestation (Tinea pellionella and Tineola bisselliella). We are in the process of replacing old cabinets whose seals have failed.  As we were moving the bird and mammal specimens into new Lane cabinets, student workers found some insect remains which our entomology department IDed for us as above.  We have temporary access to a walk-in drying oven that will allow us to heat the drawers full of specimens to kill any insects or eggs.  However, we cannot fit an entire Lane cabinet in the oven, so we are wondering about best practices to ensure we are not putting specimens back in a cabinet that is harboring insects.  
> 
> Does anyone know how likely it is that larvae, eggs, or adults could have spread into these new cabinets in the 1 week or so we've been storing the infested specimens there?  I could get lures and trap for a week and use boric acid or DE on the bottom to hopefully kill anything that might be crawling around.  But if it is likely that eggs could have fallen somewhere into the cabinet that we can't see or something has pupated in a crevice somewhere, obviously that could take three or more weeks before they would be vulnerable to those methods.  We have two clean cabinets we could use to hold the treated specimens, but that's not enough for all the specimens we have to treat, so if we could cycle these cabinets back into action within 3-7 days that would be a huge help!  Just to clarify, the old cabinets with failed seals are being tossed--I am just looking for a way to make sure that two of our new Lane cabinets (into which students moved materials from an infested cabinet bef  ore realizing it was infested) are not now themselves infested. If I am just paranoid and it would be safe to use these cabinets after vaccuuming them out and wiping them down, that would make life so much easier. 
> 
> Thank you for any advice!
> -Carola Haas
> cahaas at vt.edu
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