Silverfish

Holly Chase <holly.chase [at] sunrider__com> writes

>Does finding one silverfish and a few dead moths justify treating
>all the artwork and cases in that gallery?

I'd say no--although that depends on what you mean by treating! Any
overall "treatment" of objects with chemicals or anoxia or anything
should only be done if it's really necessary.  What kind of objects
are in the case?

What really needs to be done is an examination of the objects and
the cases to see if you can find out where the bugs came from.
Silverfish are usually associated with dampness and/or new
construction materials.  They don't literally "infest" objects, they
run around and can leave marks on the surface of certain kinds of
paper, but even that is relatively rare.  There's no kind of
"treatment"  that would keep bugs away from objects.  About the dead
moths, do you know how long they've been dead?  Unless you find
evidence of a cocoon somewhere, it's likely that a couple of moths
just happened to fly in from somewhere and die.  Inspection is
everything.  If you are still worried, and if the collections have a
lot of wool--you can always find out what kind of moths they are.

Barbara Appelbaum
Appelbaum and Himmelstein
444 Central Park West
New York, NY 10025
212-666-4630


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 21:13
                   Distributed: Friday, June 29, 2007
                       Message Id: cdl-21-13-006
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