Insect infestation in gourds

I have already responded off-line to Adrian's query (29 Aug 97) with
some of this ...off-line, because I thought that what I had to offer
would be repeated by others, plenteously. However, that has not been
the case, and I have added to it. So, I make bold to supplement
Storch, Appelbaum, and Trinkley.

The very first thing to do is to identify and characterize the
specific insects. While an entomologist is good, that may not be
necessary: Linda A. Zycherman and J. Richard Schrock, A Guide to
Museum Pest Control, and Keith O. Story, Approaches to Pest
Management in Museums have very good illustrations which--along
with a hand lens--should "get a make" on the perps.

Then, using T. J. K. Strang, "A Review of Published Temperatures for
the Control of Pest Insects in Museums, "Collection Forum 8(2)1992,
41-67 along with his recently published Canadian Conservation
Institute "CCI Note" 3/3 (1997) "Controlling Insect Pests with Low
Temperature," the information necessary to guarantee mortality of
the specific identified insect(s) in all life stages--including
eggs--is on hand. We recently decided upon this technique for
decontamination of intake materials for the New State Records Center
building.

We could have had anything (except irradiation), but we chose this
over the others: freeze drying, for various reasons; over chemical
treatment (see Johanna G. Wellheiser, Nonchemical Treatment
Processes for Disinfestation of Insects and Fungi in Library
Collections (IFLA Publication 60); and anoxia (see the various
papers available on CoOL, and Michael J. Rust, The Feasibility of
Using Modified Atmospheres to Control Insect Pests in Museums, Getty
Conservation Institute, 1993. I should say that this last-named had
many attractive qualities, but we decided that deep cold has a
shallower learning/training curve for the level of personnel who
would end up being the ones doing it.

Henry Grunder
Conservation/Preservation Coordinator
The Library of Virginia

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 11:24
               Distributed: Thursday, September 11, 1997
                       Message Id: cdl-11-24-005
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