Silverfish

I was hoping someone would have experience or suggestions regarding the
following situation.  A few silverfish have been seen in a small room
(12 x 15') filled with book storage boxes stacked 8 high.  They are
packed tightly with a collection containing books, manuscripts and
photos--including some albumen prints--about 5000 items total.  The book
"Approaches to Pest Management in Museums" by Keith Story addresses the
use of boric acid among other solutions.  A scientist in the Entomology
Dept. at UCD said the silverfish would have to walk through the
substance to be affected by it and it wouldn't be wise to sprinkle the
powder directly in the boxes. Just leaving dishes of it around wouldn't
be very effective given the height of the boxes (the silverfish were
found in the top boxes).  Two more suggestions he had were to sprinkle
silica powder on top of the material if this was safe for the materials,
or to cut Shell No-Pest strips up and wrap them or place in open
containers in the boxes.  Does anyone know if Silica powder would be
less damaging than the chance of silverfish, or what the effect of the
NO-Pest strips in a closed box is? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Wendy Jones
Preservation Dept., Shields Library
University of California, Davis
Davis, CA. 95616     (916) 752-6040

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 6:56
                 Distributed: Wednesday, April 28, 1993
                        Message Id: cdl-6-56-006
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