I am going to chime in my two cents worth here about silverfish and firebrats and it’s entirely just my opinion. I don’t do conservation treatments for dead insects. I do for active, live or the risk of viable eggs. Silverfish and firebrat eggs are viable under the proper Rh for at the most 60 days….they are not like powder post which could remain dormant for years. This is why I suggested if all you are finding are bodies would be to bag them in polyethylene bags and place a silica gel sachet or two in with them. You could then literally just observe them for 60 days and be done with it. You could also work with the tapes bagged when you aren’t actively recording them. Marvelseal and Mitsubishi oxygen scavengers are costly. Do a random sampling and if there are no live ones I would then to do the more economical route. JTV
Get Outlook for iOS<https://aka.ms/o0ukef> ________________________________ From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of dkronkright <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, September 8, 2025 12:02:44 PM To: MuseumPests <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [PestList] Re: Silverfish elimination You don't often get email from [email protected]. Learn why this is important<https://aka.ms/LearnAboutSenderIdentification> [CAUTION: This message originated from outside the Foundation. Do not click links, open attachments or take action unless you know the contents are safe] Stephan and Rob - This 2-day sterilization period, exclusively for silverfish is entirely new to me!!! Thank you and thank you for this excellent citation, which has flown entirely outside of my radar. There is also an excellent review of the reference book here from 2023: https://www.iiconservation.org/news/features/book-review-integrated-pest-management-collections Definitely ordering this for our library. Many thanks! On Saturday, September 6, 2025 at 4:49:38 AM UTC-6 [email protected] wrote: Hi Rob and Dale if you have just „Silverfish“ to treat, you could reduce the time with oxygen scavenger from 21 days to 2 days. See results of a study 2022 in Colone Germany 48 hours oxygen free atmosphere at 22 °C, 50 % RH and 0.1 % residual oxygen content Wagner J., Querner P. and Hundt A (2022) Pest comparison of three treatment methods for archive materials against the grey silverfish. In S. Ryder and A. Crossmann (eds), Integrated Pest Management for Collections. Proceedings of 2021: A Pest Odyssey, The Next Generation. Archetype Publications. 94-102 Best Stephan Gesendet von Outlook für iOS<https://aka.ms/o0ukef> Stephan Biebl Ingenieurbüro für Holzschutz Mariabrunnweg 15 83671 Benediktbeuern Germany https://www.holzwurmfluesterer.de/ https://insectactivitydetectionsystem.de/ https://museumsschaedlinge.de/ ________________________________ Von: [email protected] <[email protected]> im Auftrag von dkronkright <[email protected]> Gesendet: Friday, September 5, 2025 12:27:51 AM An: MuseumPests <[email protected]> Betreff: [PestList] Re: Silverfish elimination Greetings, Rob, I suggest you consider making MarvelSeal bags to hold groups of boxed cassettes and using oxygen-scavengers to both eliminate all life phases silverfish and any other insects who might have joined their party. The procedure is outlined here, with references and suppliers annotated: https://museumpests.net/solutions-oxygen-scavenger-treatment/ Once the scavenger treatment period of 21 days is complete, the cassettes can remain inside the sealed bags, and you can more systematically open one and do the vacuuming, cleaning, re-boxing and sealing for storage, as time permits. The sterilized materials can remain inside their sealed, MarvelSeal bags and remain safe from re-infestation or pheromone - chemical attraction for other passerby insects on the outside of your buildings. We routinely do this process here, so feel free to write me if you want further advice. Dale Kronkright Head of Conservation Georgia O'Keeffe Museum [email protected] 505-946-1041<tel:(505)%20946-1041> On Thursday, September 4, 2025 at 12:32:11 PM UTC-6 Rob.Ridgen wrote: Hello, A large collection of videotapes may be coming to my institution on temporary deposit until the tapes can be reformatted and the digitized video transferred to a managed environment. During an assessment of the collection at the current, less than ideal storage location, dead silverfish nymphs were discovered inside several Betacam cassettes, and the move is now on hold until I can come up with a mitigation plan. Alternative secure locations in town are unlikely to be found, and I expect that an approach that involves labour-intensive container inspection, cleaning, re-boxing, and container sealing is the most likely approach that will be used to eliminate or control any potentially live insect pests in this collection. However, before proceeding, I thought I’d check to see what others may have used before I decide upon any one particular approach. Does anyone know of an archives or similar institution that has used sanitation, cool, heat, or fumigation to eliminate silverfish or other insect pests from magnetic tape collections? I’d be interested in knowing about things like costs, safety issues, how successful the method was, and if the method caused any damage (e.g., separation of lubricants from tape formulation…). Thank you in advance for any advice or suggestions you can provide. Best regards, [https://groups.google.com/group/pestlist/attach/96ccac54bf73/image001.png?part=0.1&view=1] Rob Ridgen Manager Tourism and Culture | Yukon Archives T 867-667-3556<tel:(867)%20667-3556> | C 867-332-4456<tel:(867)%20332-4456> | Yukon.ca -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MuseumPests" group. 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