Deltathor

    ***** On Mar 4, 2013, at 7:22 PM, Conservation DistList wrote:
    *****> Dominique Rogers <do [at] rioplata__co__u
    ***** Re: heat treatments for pest control

Dominique Rogers <do [at] rioplata__co__uk> writes

>Jerry Shiner <info [at] keepsafe__ca> writes
>
>>Valerie Tomlinson <vtomlinson [at] aucklandmuseum__com> writes
>>
>>>Wouldn't heat treatment be simpler? I've forgotten if this idea was
>>>mentioned earlier in the string and discarded.
>>>...
>>
>>Valerie brings an interesting perspective, as heat treatment is a
>>simple and underused insect control method. However, in this
>>situation, I think the problem is not merely one of method, but of
>>scale. How do you ramp up any treatment to be both safe and
>>effective on something as big as a railway coach? ...
>
>I am surprised by the question raised against heat treatment. Am I
>being totally out of date with present research on its effects? I
>thought that Thermo Lignum had sorted the problem with their process
>in the 90s? See:

We just had a meeting of the IPM working group that runs the
MuseumPests.net web site, and are re-writing the section on heat
treatment.  I hope the new version will be up in a couple of weeks.
I have no doubt that it is under-used.  There are three possible
reasons not to use it:  deterioration of DNA, accelerated aging, and
problems with relative humidity.  The first issues are very
rare--probably a limited percentage of biological research
collections for the first, very few for the second; many routine
conservation treatments use temperatures at least as high, if not
higher, and items extremely sensitive to RH may be a problem, but
people who use the method have a variety of ways to avoid a steep
drop in RH.

Barbara Appelbaum
Appelbaum and Himmelstein
444 Central Park West
New York, NY  10025
212-666-4630
Fax: 212-316-1039


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 26:42
                 Distributed: Wednesday, March 20, 2013
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