Re: woodworm query

[Jim McGill <jim@elseware.com>]

The usual method for killing wood worms in the furniture business
(and recomended by the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, as I remember) is
to throw the wood in a freezer for a week or so.  I've used it to
kill powder post beetles in Madrona and Oak. Seems to work.  I
suspect that as long as you were careful moving the object while it
was cold (horse hide glues become glassy at low temperatures and
shatter on impact), you could probably treat a harpsicord at a
commercial cold storage company. You'd have to do a bit of education
of the workers to get them to treat things carefully enough, though.

Jim

[Moderator's note:  Deep freezing is used in museum contexts but the
procedures normally applied are somewhat more complex than those
described here. Of critical importance is that the temperature drop
is sudden enough for the insects not to be able to protect
themselves from the impending "winter".)