Diatomaceous earth and pest control

Thomas A. Parker <bugman22 [at] aol__com> writes

>Freezing infested cases and then sealing them some way is a much
>better long-term approach.  If the tiny, newly-hatched larvae cannot
>penetrate the cases, there will be no more infestation.  Most
>collections are infested when infested materials are introduced or
>when someone working on a collection case leaves it open for a
>period of time while they are working on the specimens.

One must realize the best approach is to remove the infestation in
the storage area by inspecting all specimens, eradication of any
active infestations, cleaning away any evidence of insects and
establishing a zero point at which you know there are no insects and
then have an IPM program to maintain this by continued inspection in
storage and of any incoming specimens and materials, i.e. beetle
colonies used for cleaning skeletal specimens also harbor other
insects such as varied carpet beetle, these can come in with cleaned
materials and move off to other collection. The IPM program is
initially labor intensive but when established easy to maintain.

Mary-Lou Florian Conservation Scientist,
Research Associate, Royal British Columbia Museum,
Victoria, BC, Canada.


                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 18:40
                 Distributed: Monday, February 28, 2005
                       Message Id: cdl-18-40-008
                                  ***