[Nhcoll-l] Freezing as preventative pest treatmenet

Thu Apr 15 12:00:49 EDT 2021

Hi Tonya,

Freezing slides is not a good idea because of both the mounting media and
the glass itself. I agree with Genevieve that if you're worried, you can go
with anoxia as a possibility.

Please check museumpests.net for more information on this topic, but you
can email me directly if you have questions about the process.

Best,
Mariana

On Thu, Apr 15, 2021, 09:31 Tocci, Genevieve Elizabeth <
glewis-g at oeb.harvard.edu> wrote:

> Hi Tonya,
>
>
>
> I also agree. I know with some of our collections we have slide label
> deterioration in some places due to silverfish and psocid activity. The
> risks are the same as explained previously, and we never freeze the wet
> mounts we have in addition to the solid mounts, but they can be damaged by
> pests.
>
>
>
> If you want to treat the slides because there is evidence of label damage
> due to pest activity and anoxia treatment would be an alternative. It is
> longer and more expensive, but would take care of pests and be less risk to
> the slides. (Or so I am led to believe but welcome a conservator to jump in
> and correct me.)
>
>
>
> Good luck
>
> Genevieve
>
>
>
> =================================================
> Genevieve E. Tocci (she, her, hers)
> Senior Curatorial Technician
> Harvard University Herbaria
> 22 Divinity Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138  U.S.A.
> Phone: 617-495-1057  Fax: 617-495-9484
> glewis-g at oeb.harvard.edu
>
>
>
> *From:* Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> * On Behalf Of *Simon
> Moore
> *Sent:* Thursday, April 15, 2021 7:00 AM
> *To:* Hawks, Catharine <HawksC at si.edu>
> *Cc:* NHCOLL-new <nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>
> *Subject:* Re: [Nhcoll-l] Freezing as preventative pest treatmenet
>
>
>
> Yes, definitely don’t freeze slides! You will create all sorts of problems!
>
>
>
> With all good wishes,
>
> Simon Moore MIScT, RSci, FLS, ACR
> Conservator of Natural Sciences and Cutlery Historian,
>
> www.natural-history-conservation.com
> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.natural-2Dhistory-2Dconservation.com&d=DwMFaQ&c=WO-RGvefibhHBZq3fL85hQ&r=EYdhJ0HrhAMcA2aVQ-I4N7lml00zxsXPbHYeP7843No&m=lvi0MisllqzfU8popo8nBgTkYSagykxvs2nPgG_TqdU&s=HTPlO9gj_fWeuAZyHFO4H8OskJfvz-kmZRi5HlAYCAI&e=>
>
>
>
>
> On 15 Apr 2021, at 11:25, Hawks, Catharine <HawksC at si.edu> wrote:
>
> Hi Tonya
>
> I concur with Dirk – there is a greater risk of damage to the slides from
> freezing than from pests.
>
> Cathy
> Catharine Hawks (she, her, hers)
> Conservator
> Collections Program
> MRC 170 Rm M85-J
> National Museum of Natural History
> 10th Street & Constitution Ave NW
> Washington DC 20560
> w 202.633.0835 or 4041  c 703 200 4370
> hawksc at si.edu
>
> SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
> NATIONAL MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY
> Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Instagram
>
>
>
>
>
> From: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> On Behalf Of Dirk
> Neumann
> Sent: Thursday, April 15, 2021 1:54 AM
> To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
> Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] Freezing as preventative pest treatmenet
>
> External Email - Exercise Caution
> Hi Tonya,
>
> my personal thoughts are that this depends a bit on potentially different
> expansion coefficients of the slides embedding agents and cover slips and
> potentially unwanted condensation effects when moving the slides out of the
> freezers again.
>
> Birger Neuhaus at the MfN in Berlin published a really comprehensive piece
> on the conservation of microslides which is available here
>
> He basically says the same cautioning that mounting media might suffer
> from shrinkage and also the glass itself (depending on the quality
> especially in historic objects) might be damaged from this harsh
> temperature shock.
>
> Hope this helps
> Dirk
>
> ****
>
> "Recently, the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin established in the frame of a
> pest management program a quarantine and freezing station for incoming
> parcels with special attention to entomological items returned from the
> borrower. Material from wet collections and microscope slides are excluded
> from this practice, because both mounting media (Brown 1997, p. 6) and
> coverslip seals containing polymers (Shashoua 2008, p. 203) would suffer
> from shrinkage or formation of large hexagonal ice crystals, which pierce
> cell membranes and the like during the freezing process (Florian 1990;
> Allington & Sherlock 2007a, 2007b). The latter authors demonstrated that
> damage occurred already after freezing coverslip seals just a few times.
> The consequences of these processes have already been recognized at the
> Natural History Museum in London (Brown 1997)."
>
>
>
> Am 15.04.2021 um 00:59 schrieb Haff, Tonya (NCMI, Crace):
> Hello all,
>
> I am wondering if any of you have insight into freezing everything in a
> collection before moving in to a new building. Specifically, I am
> wondering about things like slides. Are histology, etc slides safe to be
> frozen at -30 to -40C? Is there anything else that I should be thinking
> about?
>
> Thanks!
>
> Tonya
>
> Dr Tonya Haff
> Collection Manager
> Australian National Wildlife Collection
>
>
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>
> Dirk Neumann
>
> Tel: 089 / 8107-111
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> ---------
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> Dirk Neumann
>
> Tel: +49-89-8107-111
> Fax: +49-89-8107-300
> neumann(a)snsb.de
>
> postal address:
>
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> NHCOLL-L is brought to you by the Society for the Preservation of
> Natural History Collections (SPNHC), an international society whose
> mission is to improve the preservation, conservation and management of
> natural history collections to ensure their continuing value to
> society. See http://www.spnhc.org for membership information.
> Advertising on NH-COLL-L is inappropriate.
>
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> _______________________________________________
> NHCOLL-L is brought to you by the Society for the Preservation of
> Natural History Collections (SPNHC), an international society whose
> mission is to improve the preservation, conservation and management of
> natural history collections to ensure their continuing value to
> society. See http://www.spnhc.org for membership information.
> Advertising on NH-COLL-L is inappropriate.
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