Silverfish

One of our historic sites is suffering from an infestation of
silverfish in an attic collections storage area.  Since discovering
it, they've been working hard to clean the area, vacuuming out
storage boxes and cracks and crevices, rehousing objects, and
segregating the cleaned materials from those still in the infested
area.  However, the silverfish are still present.  I know that
integrated pest management results in a slow change, but we're also
a bit frustrated that many IPM techniques for silverfish are
difficult to practice in an historic building.  In particular, it is
very difficult to reduce relative humidity in an historic building
in Louisiana.  What are our options? I'm beginning to think that we
may have to move to more drastic chemical treatments in the short
term, just to make a dent in their numbers. What would be the safest
option, both for humans and the collections?

Sandra Smith
John and Neville Bryan Director of Museum Collections
National Trust for Historic Preservation


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 18:40
                 Distributed: Monday, February 28, 2005
                       Message Id: cdl-18-40-032
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