Dear Alan (and all), We recently had to temporarily relocate roughly 16,000 objects from a wing of our collections building in preparation for compact shelving installation. We were fortunate enough to be able to rehouse all the objects within the collections building and thus did not have to deal with moving everything to a secondary location. Portions of the building have become temporarily very crowded, however, and we saturated these areas with blunder traps to detect any pest issues that might arise from the relocation. This move provided us with an excellent opportunity to review all the objects in this wing for pest issues and quarantine those determined to have active or recently active pest populations. Overall, on the pest frontier, we had few issues.
The major issue we ran into time and time again was mold. The shelving we deconstructed did not allow for adequate ventilation under the bottom shelf of each unit, and we found hidden mold under almost every row of shelves. Though I hope you will have no need to do so, depending on the age of your building and the environment within, I would highly recommend stocking up on personal protective equipment, plastic bags, and possibly bleach (for sterilizing modern surfaces) ahead of time. If the budget allows, a stand-alone air purifier is helpful as well. Best of luck! Sincerely, Katherine From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Alan P Van Dyke Sent: Tuesday, August 06, 2019 11:45 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [pestlist] remodeling building, collections storage and bugs Hi everyone, Our institution is currently going through some planning for a potential remodel of our collections storage areas. As one can easily surmise, there are a lot of things to consider, lots of decisions to be made, and lots of unexpected surprises to reveal themselves. I would very much like to hear from anyone who has recently had to move large portions or the entirety of their collections, used temporary remote storage or had to mass-house collections. What IPM issues did you encounter? What worked and didn't work? Even broader advice about collections care management is welcome. I know this stretches a bit beyond the scope of this list, but on the other hand, environment, proper storage and housings all fit in with IPM. Thanks, Alan Alan Van Dyke Senior Preservation Technician Harry Ransom Center The University of Texas at Austin P.O. Drawer 7219 Austin, TX 78713-7219 P: 512-232-4614 www.hrc.utexas.edu<http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/> -- 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]<mailto:[email protected]>. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pestlist/CAHhLO3ZLT4SQEW1NcM8Hq06XL42e-C%2B0So5_H_dJ6J9-CNSvgQ%40mail.gmail.com<https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pestlist/CAHhLO3ZLT4SQEW1NcM8Hq06XL42e-C%2B0So5_H_dJ6J9-CNSvgQ%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>. -- 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 view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pestlist/BN8PR18MB2946DF90765B43E04BE7FCACCAD50%40BN8PR18MB2946.namprd18.prod.outlook.com.
