Silverfish

From: Richard Aitken <*conservation*> Date: Tuesday, May 2, 2006 · conservation

Morag Wehrle <morag.wehrle [at] pc__gc__ca> writes

>Our entire office building, which is also home to our library and
>archives, is currently having problems with silverfish.

May I suggest you use insect traps, I'm not sure who we buy out
traps from but on the box is <URL:http://www.belllabs.com> who are
based in Madison, Wisconsin 53704 USA.

The traps are extremely useful for locating the silverfish, I use
them all the time for preventative conservation. When I first
started using the traps a few years ago I was surprised at the
amount of silverfish I was catching in certain areas--the traps
would literally be full of silverfish after a week or two. When
these areas are located spray an insect spray down, (silverfish is
usually noted on the can) the spay is usually effective for 3 months
the same life span as the traps.The silverfish go back to their nest
to die.

The problem I had with the silverfish is one of the archive
buildings has under floor heating, ideal for silverfish. When these
areas are located, clean out the whole area, go in all the boxes,
etc, you may locate a nest--if you're lucky. It's a messy job but
should be worth it in the long run, with regular monitoring. The
problem I had is down to a minimum now with regular monitoring.

The RH is reasonable, though there maybe pockets of air with no
ventilation, may I suggest fans (the 3-4 foot standing fans), this
gets the air circulating, which should remove areas of high RHs in
the corners of rooms, I would keep the dehumidifier on also.

If you have the movable winding shelves, wind them so they have a
little gap down each aisle, this also helps to keep the air moving I
hope this advice is useful and good luck,

Richard Aitken
Archive Conservator
West Yorkshire Archives
Wakefield
UK
+44 1924 305986
Fax: +44 1924 305983

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 19:54
                    Distributed: Friday, May 5, 2006
                       Message Id: cdl-19-54-004
                                  ***