Dear all, Thank you very much for your messages so far. I realised I made a mistake too. I meant 37 objects since the 19th of November! I will attempt to answer all your questions.
1. Todd: All objects are bagged and sealed with lots of packing tape. I don't even know how they're getting out. I forgot to mention that other mystery. 2. Gretchen: - The seals look good although I suppose they might not be stiff enough? I also put in the little cable for a couple thermohygrometers, but interestingly, the insects don't show up in those areas but where the seals seem to be tight. Maybe I can put some heavy weights on top and see if that changes anything. The freezer itself is not old. It came at the start of 2016 so it should, in theory, still be okay. - The freezer does not have a defrost cycle. There's actually a bit of frost inside. The datalogger shows continuous low temperatures, and there is never any water on the ground showing defrost cycles. In fact, when the freezer is empty, I turn it down to the lowest setting (like 10°C) so it all melts out (and the floor gets very wet) and I can clean it up properly inside. - The storage areas as well as everything else is a new (2016) neo brutalist style concrete building. There are are no apparent cracks and holes or hidden plumbing or cabling areas or old house bits for dead mice, etc. There is no window in this space and we have recently installed new rubber seals on all doors. I have a permanent cleaning staff that goes around every storage space at least once a week and vacuums and cleans all surfaces. There is no wooden furniture and the storage units are all metal rolling shelves. Every object is individually boxed, and because insects have been such a big deal, we had even started bagging everything. I have four homemade pest traps (packing tape sticky side up) in the room I'm talking about and I have never got a single beetle or larva casing on any of them. I just don't even know what dimension these things are coming in from. Oh, and I forgot to mention that these areas have been fumigated twice this year, in February and August (because the Ministry insists). It doesn't seem to have helped much?? This comment has made me think, though, that there are some other organic materials in there that we ought to check in case they might be the real source. I will keep you updated on this. 3. Yuri: Thank you very much for your offer, but l'm in Peru. And like I said, the State wouldn't pay for any of that. 4. Eric: Thank you very much for the suggestion. I'm afraid I don't have a heat sealer and some of the objects are too big for ziplocs, but I think they were going to get us one soon through a donation. We will migrate to that as soon as possible. The mystery continues. 🤔 --Angelica On Thu, 6 Dec 2018 at 11:14, Anderson, Gretchen <[email protected]> wrote: > That is very interesting and unusual. I have a couple of > thoughts/questions: > > 1. Have you checked the seals on the freezer? They may need repair if > the beetles are actually escaping from the freezer. > 2. Does your freezer have a defrost cycle? -29 deg. C should be more > than adequate – and a month is more than enough time for a kill. Defrost > cycles warm up the freezer to reduce frost. Your data logger should be > able to tell that. > 3. Remember that neither thermal (freeze, heat) nor anoxic treatments > are residual. You will continue to have infestation problems until you > deal with the source of the infestation. Do you have any idea where the > little darlings are coming from? Are there pest hotspots that you can > identify? > > > > Good Luck > Gretchen Anderson > > > > [image: id:[email protected]] > > Gretchen Anderson > > Conservator > > Carnegie Museum of Natural History > > 5800 Baum Blvd. > > Pittsburgh PA 15206 > > Phone: 412-665-2607 > > Cell: 412-420-9083 > > > > > > > > *From:* [email protected] <[email protected]> *On Behalf > Of *Todd Holmberg > *Sent:* Thursday, December 06, 2018 11:05 AM > *To:* [email protected] > *Subject:* Re: [pestlist] Serious concern with biscuit beetles - Please > help! > > > > Interesting- It will be interesting to hear peoples thoughts on this one. > > > > Just to clarify regarding the escaped beetles, are the objects > bagged/wrapped while in the freezer? > > > > -Todd > > > > On Thu, Dec 6, 2018 at 9:42 AM a.isa14022 <[email protected]> wrote: > > Dear all, > > > > I hope you can help me because I'm going crazy here. > > I've been putting wood and gourd items into my commercial freezer, which > goes down to -29°C and leaving them there for a month after detecting > biscuit beetles (because nothing less seemed to do much - forget 3 days or > a week). I have a data logger in there, so I know the temperature is > definitely down there. The items go in from room temperature straight into > -29°C because we keep the freezer on all the time It takes a datalogger > wrapped in a bag as if it were an object less than 30mins to drop down to > -29°C. Recently, I started having to put in objects that I had treated > earlier this year apart from others as well. I've put in 37 objects since > the 19th of September and still counting. > > > > I noticed two days ago that there were biscuit beetles all around the > rubber seals of my freezer, on the *outside*. When I brushed them off > onto the ground, not a minute or two passed before they started waking up > and moving. I have no funds or access to anoxia or heat treatments in my > institution or out. All I have is the freezer, and now that doesn't seem to > be working at all except for making the adults literally escape from the > objects and squeeze themselves out through the rubber seals, after which > I'm literally having to step on them to make sure they're dead. I still > can't believe it. It seems the juveniles do get killed though, because I > have been able to shake dead ones out of objects before. > > > > Other than having to buy lock & lock boxes and seal everything up > individually after a time in the freezer, I don't know what else to do. I > was trying to avoid chemicals at all costs, but if my employer (the State) > refuses to buy more boxes, I will have to find something or risk losing the > whole wooden and gourd collection (It's not that large). There is no such > thing as reasoning with my employer, by the way. I have some thymol which I > bought a couple years ago for absolute, last-minute measures, but I just > don't know since I've heard about surface changes after thymol treatments > plus the well-known contentious issues about health hazards. > > > > If I should be allowed to call in a professional fumigation service, would > this be all right? Permethrins and all that? I don't have extraction, by > the way. I don't even have a lab. We just have an office and the storage > areas. I've experimented with putting isopropanol in with an object in a > little jar to try and slowly gas them. I know it kills woodlouse, at least, > for sure. I had to do a small, rather sad test with an unfortunate > straggler. I just can't tell if it worked on this wooden stick I tried > since it was too long for the freezer because there's so much frass inside > it that I can't get out that it's hard to tell if it really worked although > I did shake out several dead juveniles. > > > > I'm trying to be conservation conscious, humane, safe, and practical all > at the same time, but I'm afraid something will have to give somewhere > given my resources and circumstances. I really don't want to give up any of > these things, though. > > > > Sorry for the super long e-mail, but I've tried to give as many details as > I have at the moment. Any suggestions or help would be very, very, very > much appreciated!!! > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Museumpests" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/pestlist. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pestlist/00811bde-990f-4ce3-b2cf-664f841502eb%40googlegroups.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pestlist/00811bde-990f-4ce3-b2cf-664f841502eb%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Museumpests" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/pestlist. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pestlist/CAMxAh%2Bgqi-0tq1G4s-g%3DDqeo_5oiPkYaYqBhT%2BHZ7PXa_5ViVg%40mail.gmail.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pestlist/CAMxAh%2Bgqi-0tq1G4s-g%3DDqeo_5oiPkYaYqBhT%2BHZ7PXa_5ViVg%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > > > > The information contained in this message and/or attachments is intended > only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain > confidential and/or privileged material. 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