Wood borer infestation

Dee Stubbs <a5a24354 [at] telus__net> writes

>Has anyone had recent experience with eradicating a wood borer
>infestation in a large painted wooden artifact?

I have been the co-ordinator of European research project SAVE ART
ended October 2000. The project has developed and validated a
technology to solve this kind of problems in the respect of the
environment, human health and of the objects belonging to Cultural
Heritage. It was executed in cooperation with Nieves Valentin
(Spain), Monika Akerlund and Jan Erik Bergh (Sweden), Simon Conyers
(Great Britain) and Carlo Federici (Italy).

The outcome of the project is a portable equipment, patented and
registered under the name of VELOXY (VEry Low OXYgen);  it is used
to create "on the site" anoxic environments inside enclosures that
are tailor made to the objects.

Once the composition of the air has been modified, from the normal
20,95% to 0,1 - 0,2%, the machinery is stopped and the objects will
stay three weeks in such conditions; after this period, all species
of insect, at any stage of life (eggs, larvae and pupae included),
are eradicated. The mechanism of insect killing would be too long to
be explained here, but they die for sure.

The method is the viable alternative for museums, archives and
libraries to pesticides and fumigation with toxic gases (that in
general are polluting, risky for human health and can react with
materials damaging the artifacts. See: National Cancer Institute;
National Academy of Science USA : Symptoms of pesticide poisoning
<URL:http://www.safe2use.com>. The enclosures are made by a
transparent gas barrier plastic film (1200 mm height) for large
sized objects, the film that can be coupled several times
2400-3600-4800 ... mm).

The oxygen free air is protective for the artefacts, is not
polluting and does not represent a risk for human health. More
detailed info can be mailed.

Ercole Gialdi
R.G.I. Resource Group Integrator
V.le N. Sauro 8
16145 Genova - Italy
+39 10 3626002
Fax: +39 10 3109440



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                  Conservation DistList Instance 14:33
                 Distributed: Monday, December 18, 2000
                       Message Id: cdl-14-33-006
                                  ***