RE: [pestlist] invasion of bugs at house museum
I'm responsible for overseeing the IPM vendor contract and in-house program at our state-wide network of historic sites. We also have historic houses and buildings that are subjected to the same types of pest loads that you describe. I agree with the previous responses about structural exclusion and trapping. Those are two very essential components of any effective IPM plan. It sounds like you have the continuous monitoring in place with the pest log. The suggestions will work over time. Two questions that you didn't address: do you have a strict cleaning (you did mention vacuuming the bugs regularly, and you'll still have to do that) and food policy inside the house? That's important to reduce food sources for insects that might be attracted to food residues, and for rodents. Secondly, I've inferred from your description of the problem that there might be vegetation growing close to the house. I looked at the image of the front of the house on your website, and the landscaping appears to be correct for the period on the street side. It looks like there might be plants close to the walls around the back. We had severe box elder invasions in one of our historic homes until we removed the box elders growing close to the house. The PCO should have made some comments about vegetation, if it's indeed a factor. Paul S. Storch Project Specialist II/Collections Liaison Historic Sites and Museums B-124.2 Minnesota Historical Society 345 Kellogg Blvd. West St. Paul, MN 55116 (651) 259-3257 paul.sto...@mnhs.org Visit Historic Sites!http://www.mnhs.org/visit/ www.mnhs.org From: pestlist-ow...@museumpests.net [mailto:pestlist-ow...@museumpests.net] On Behalf Of bugma...@aol.com Sent: Tuesday, October 05, 2010 6:47 PM To: pestlist@museumpests.net Subject: Re: [pestlist] invasion of bugs at house museum The insect invasion you describe happens every fall when insects seek out shelter for the winter. Your idea of a black light in the attic is a good one. Get a supply of glueboards from Atlantic Paste Glue Company of Brooklyn, NY. Any firm which supplies the pest control industry will have them in stock. Surround the black light with glueboards and put the thing on a timer so it will come on at about 4PM and go off at night. Flies usually rest at night. Other than sealing your building as tightly as you can, there's not much you can do about the Autumn invaders. A thorough glueboard program throughout the facility is a must in addition to the attic situation. Thomas A. Parker, PhD Pest Control Services, Inc. www.museumpestcontrol.comhttp://www.museumpestcontrol.com -Original Message- From: Hayley Chambers hay...@theadamsdeadwood.org To: pestlist@museumpests.net Sent: Tue, Oct 5, 2010 5:52 pm Subject: [pestlist] invasion of bugs at house museum Hello folks, I am the new Curator of a house museum in South Dakota that has been overrun with insects, primarily cluster/wood flies, hornets, box elder bugs, and pine leaf beetles (stink bugs). We are experiencing warm autumn weather here and the seasonal pests have been thriving in the attic and throughout the warmer parts of the house. This is a giant concern asthetically (try giving a tour of the house without seeing or hearing the bugs fly around!), health-wise (no one has been stung by a hornet...yet), and of course for the artifacts (flies are getting mashed into floors, leaving debris, and may be a food source for larder beetles). We don't have an IPM in place, unfortunately it did not receive board approval. Hopefully, with renewed energy on my part, we can get something in place. From my understanding, the flies in the house have been an on-going issue since it was converted into a museum ten years ago. Unfortunately, most of what I know about the pest problem is institutional mythology and very little has been recorded. What I do know is that until recently treatment has been superficial- mostly vacuuming when necessary and semi-annual pesticide sprays. The house was sprayed in the spring and the fall until 2008 because of budget cuts. Now the house receives a treatment (spraying around the foundation and inside around base boards and windows) in the fall, though it was not done last year because of early snow fall. Spraying period is something I would like to eliminate. Unfortunately, we simply can't afford expensive fly catchers. Earlier this year, our facilities manager fabricated our own version of a fly catcher for our attic- a blue light mounted on wood with removable sticky fly strips. While these do appear to be attracting flies, we don't have an adequate way to collect them so they form piles of dead flies, which is just plain gross. I created a Pest Management Log to start keeping track of what kinds of insects we are finding, how many, where, and when. I have also met with our pest elimination specialist, who has sprayed at the house and our sister museum for years. We
RE: [pestlist] invasion of bugs at house museum
This is a message from the Pest Management Database List. To post to this list send it as an email to pestlist@museumpests.net To unsubscribe please look at the footer of this email. --- Return Receipt Your RE: [pestlist] invasion of bugs at house museum document: waskelly_f...@nps.gov received by: at:10/06/2010 11:22:28 AM - To send an email to the list, send your msg to pestl...@museumpests.com To unsubscribe from this list send an email to imail...@museumpests.net and in the body put: unsubscribe pestlist Any problems email l...@zaks.com
[pestlist] Squirrels
I hope this is the appropriate place to ask about larger urchins. We have a storage area for archaeological materials (almost all inorganics, typically ceramics, stone and iron) that keeps getting attacked by squirrels. They like to eat the glue in our corrugated boxes, thus destroying our provenience data. Then they will sometimes nest in the boxes! Very disheartening. We keep trapping them and plugging up their outside entry points. We prohibit all bonafide food sources from storage and are now switching over to glueless twin-walled polyethylene cartons with duplicate labelling. Still with all that I've learned not to under-estimate these critters. Is there anything else we can do? Dennis Dennis Piechota Conservator Fiske Center for Archaeological Research UMass Boston Office: 617-287-6829
Re: [pestlist] Treatment for bedbugs found in bound materials
This is a message from the Pest Management Database List. To post to this list send it as an email to pestlist@museumpests.net To unsubscribe please look at the footer of this email. --- Holly, We have treated general collections books by air blast freezing to at least -20 degrees F for several days, thawing for 5-7 days, and repeating the freezing cycle. The books are tightly sealed in plastic bags within standard records boxes. The rationale for the second cycle is that the eggs will hatch and these insects will then be vulnerable to the next freezing treatment. Most of the salvage vendors who will treat wet books by freezing will also treat infestation for your collections in this way. I'm aware that the Low Temperature Treatment Fact Sheet at Museumpests.net indicates that recent research points to the repeat cycle being considered unnecessary. http://www.museumpests.net/treatment.asp Does anyone have comments on this? We've found it easy to include a thaw cycle, the major demand on our time is packing the books, so a repeat step has seemed a simple precaution. Alexis ~ Alexis Hagadorn Head of Conservation Columbia University Libraries 535 West 114th Street New York, NY 10027 212-854-3580 ~ Prochaska, Holly (prochah) wrote: Colleagues, I am trying to work on a procedure for treating bound paper materials that have bedbugs. We haven’t had any confirmed sightings yet in materials, but considering our State-wide problem I fear it is just a matter of time. I've seen plenty of good information related to facilities, but not a lot related to caring for books that have been affected. The most common quick quip is that they should be cooked at temperatures around 140 degrees Fahrenheit for 2 hours. I've not seen any indication what they are being cooked in. There is a device called Packtite that gets some mention on blogs, but not on any conservation/preservation sites. NEDCC, LOC, and Lyrasis sites don't have anything yet either. From what I’ve read freezing apparently doesn’t kill the egg stage. My concern right now is the general circulating collection, so freezing might be the only option for rare/unique materials…. Has your institution started tackling this question? Any help would be appreciated! Holly Prochaska Head, Preservation Services University of Cincinnati Libraries Tele:513-556-1389 Fax:513-556-0325 -- - To send an email to the list, send your msg to pestl...@museumpests.com To unsubscribe from this list send an email to imail...@museumpests.net and in the body put: unsubscribe pestlist Any problems email l...@zaks.com
Re: [pestlist] Treatment for bedbugs found in bound materials
This is a message from the Pest Management Database List. To post to this list send it as an email to pestlist@museumpests.net To unsubscribe please look at the footer of this email. --- In reference to the first post, most recent research states that: 118dF for 20 minutes kills adults and 49 minutes at that temperature for eggs. At 122dF eggs killed almost right away- adults and nymphs obviously also die. Packtite is a heating system that will get up to 140dF or more. It is a portable system basically designed at first for luggage. There is a rigid metal wire shelf base on legs. Heater mounted beneath. Timer plug from 1/2 hour to 8 hours and comes with a temperature probe (you can add as many as you like) to inform you about the temp at a certain location within the material you are heating. Freezing is an option, too, although keeping them at -30dF for a few hours didn't do much and they woke up after thawing. A longer period of a few days will work as will freezing, thawing, freezing. I've worked on one project where thousands of books were argon treated/anoxic treatment. Also in commercial ventures and Vikane (sulfuryl fluoride) was used. Spot heat treating in a box composed of insulation board (8'x8'x4') and also heat treating homes, apartments, etc. I am supposed to be speaking at the upcoming Museumpests.net Integrated Pest Management Working Group, (IPM-WG) and am preparing a page on bed bugs for the museumpests.org site. Colleagues, I am trying to work on a procedure for treating bound paper materials that have bedbugs. We haven't had any confirmed sightings yet in materials, but considering our State-wide problem I fear it is just a matter of time. I've seen plenty of good information related to facilities, but not a lot related to caring for books that have been affected. The most common quick quip is that they should be cooked at temperatures around 140 degrees Fahrenheit for 2 hours. I've not seen any indication what they are being cooked in. There is a device called Packtite that gets some mention on blogs, but not on any conservation/preservation sites. NEDCC, LOC, and Lyrasis sites don't have anything yet either. From what I've read freezing apparently doesn't kill the egg stage. My concern right now is the general circulating collection, so freezing might be the only option for rare/unique materials Has your institution started tackling this question? Any help would be appreciated! Holly Prochaska Head, Preservation Services University of Cincinnati Libraries Tele:513-556-1389 Fax:513-556-0325 -- Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail Louis N. Sorkin, B.C.E. Entomology Section Division of Invertebrate Zoology American Museum of Natural History Central Park West at 79th Street New York, NY 10024-5192 phone: 212-769-5613 fax: 212-769-5277 email: sor...@amnh.org The New York Entomological Society, Inc. email: n...@amnh.org web: www.nyentsoc.org Online journal from 2001 forward www.BioOne.org - To send an email to the list, send your msg to pestl...@museumpests.com To unsubscribe from this list send an email to imail...@museumpests.net and in the body put: unsubscribe pestlist Any problems email l...@zaks.com
RE: [pestlist] Treatment for bedbugs found in bound materials
Hi Holly: My reading on Bedbugs consistently indicates they are parasitic. They feed on the blood of warm blooded animals. Is there an indication they will search out books? I think the books will be safe even if they do have leather covers. Maybe someone else has experience to the contrary but otherwise I think the books have more to worry about contact with people than with Bedbugs. As an aside, I've had consistently good results eradicating all types of insects using Nitrogen with anoxic technique without concern for chemical interaction with collection materials nor for thermal complications possible with heating or freezing. Alternatively, good housekeeping, vacuuming and repeated inspection is safe and effective. Best of luck, Steve Steven Pine Decorative Arts Conservator The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston P.O. Box 6826 Houston, TX 77265 P. (713) 639-7731 C. (281) 546-7059 From: pestlist-ow...@museumpests.net [mailto:pestlist-ow...@museumpests.net] On Behalf Of Prochaska, Holly (prochah) Sent: Wednesday, October 06, 2010 12:12 PM To: 'pestlist@museumpests.net' Subject: [pestlist] Treatment for bedbugs found in bound materials Colleagues, I am trying to work on a procedure for treating bound paper materials that have bedbugs. We haven't had any confirmed sightings yet in materials, but considering our State-wide problem I fear it is just a matter of time. I've seen plenty of good information related to facilities, but not a lot related to caring for books that have been affected. The most common quick quip is that they should be cooked at temperatures around 140 degrees Fahrenheit for 2 hours. I've not seen any indication what they are being cooked in. There is a device called Packtite that gets some mention on blogs, but not on any conservation/preservation sites. NEDCC, LOC, and Lyrasis sites don't have anything yet either. From what I've read freezing apparently doesn't kill the egg stage. My concern right now is the general circulating collection, so freezing might be the only option for rare/unique materials Has your institution started tackling this question? Any help would be appreciated! Holly Prochaska Head, Preservation Services University of Cincinnati Libraries Tele:513-556-1389 Fax:513-556-0325
