Carpet beetles

We are currently upgrading a "new" storage space for our museum, the
basement of a 1919 building given to us in 1996.  The main floors
are used for education, while the basement is dedicated to
collections storage.  In preparation for this, it was cleaned and
painted in April and May 1996 and has been off-gassing since then,
and a new HVAC system for the basement itself was installed and
completed in late summer 1997.  We have been monitoring temp and rh
since 1996 as well as running IPM throughout the building.  Sticky
traps are checked once a week.  We need to use the area for storage
of furniture and textiles.

In the past week we've noticed a sudden infiltration in the sticky
traps of both adult and especially larvae carpet beetles.  I'm
looking for suggestions as to how to respond to this apparently new
appearance of the insects.  We HAD planned to move collections into
the building this summer, but of course are putting that on hold
until we uncover the source of the beetles and decide what to do
about them. Any suggestions or advice would be appreciated.

Allyn Lord, Asst. Director
Rogers Historical Museum
322 S. Second St.
Rogers, AR  72756
501-621-1154
501-443-1302 (home)

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 11:85
                 Distributed: Wednesday, April 22, 1998
                       Message Id: cdl-11-85-010
                                  ***