OFFICIAL Hi Katelynn,
One more thought regarding fumigants – if you are able to fumigate with phosphine (it must be done by a professional and in a sealed area as it is deadly to humans as well), it is non-residual and kills all insect life stages. We no longer use this (we only have freezing now), but we did find it to be very effective and to not affect colours, though I would definitely still test this. Sulfuryl fluoride is also used, is non-residual and is effective against all life stages. Pyrethrins are effective against adult life stages which it comes into contact with, but is not as good at killing eggs and pupae, or insects which are well hidden or otherwise insulated from the fumigant. We also did some trials which chlorine dioxide, which is used widely in labs as a decontaminant , but we found a) it bleaches objects, especially paper; and b) it was not effective at killing eggs. We intentionally fumigated infested objects and then monitored them to see if anything survived, and with very poor results. We have recently put all of our mounts through low temperature treatment before moving them into our new building, and have found this to be effective at killing all pest life stages, without damage to the mounts. Anyway that’s just our own experience. Good luck! Cheers, Tonya ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dr Tonya Haff Senior Collection Manager Australian National Wildlife Collection National Research Collections Australia, CSIRO Canberra, ACT 2602 Australia +61(0)419569109 From: [email protected] <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Hans-Joachim Händel Sent: Friday, 13 March 2026 5:35 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Antw: Re: [PestList] Use of Nuvan Strips for Oversized Museum Artifacts Hi Katelynn, The use of poisons is always somewhat problematic. With such large objects, there is sometimes no other option. Instead of Dichlorvos (DDVP ), I recommend a spray containing pyrethroids (these are usually called "...thrin"; do not use natural pyrethrum, as it has too short an effective period). Pyrethroids are highly effective against insects and, when used correctly, are fairly harmless to us. There are also products that contain additional growth inhibitors. Good luck! Joachim -- Joachim Haendel Center of Natural Science Collections of the Martin Luther University (ZNS) - Zoological Collection - Domplatz 4 D-06099 Halle (Saale) Germany Phone: +49 345 - 55 26 447 Email: [email protected] >>> Jill Gordon <[email protected]> schrieb am 12.03.2026 um 16:35: Hi Katelynn, Your objects sound too large for effectively killing clothes moth larvae and eggs which may be inside of the taxidermy or even just under the skin depending on how the skins were produced. Important question: what are the chairs stuffed with? Is the velvet silk (older) or synthetic? I have a lot of experience with webbing and case-making clothes moths and the only 100% guaranteed way to kill eggs, larvae within a mount such as an elk head is to fumigate it. Find good fumigator in your area and inquire about Vikane fumigation. If you are concerned about the effect of fumigants on the particular dyes used in the chairs - try to get a small sample and give to to the fumigator to test - a good fumigator will do that for you. Dichlorvos (DDVP in Nuvan) and basic “no-pest” strips have limited effectiveness. You could put a few sweaters in a sealed plastic box with a few Nuvan strips and probably kill the eggs and larvae in the sweaters but even several strips are not enough to penetrate an elk head mount or chairs. While it is a true gas - it is not “propelled” the way Vikane is in a fumigation - so it will only penetrate the objects in question a little bit. Regards, Jill Gordon On Mar 12, 2026, at 8:48 AM, 'Ulmer, Katelynn - FS, PA' via MuseumPests <[email protected]> wrote: Hi all, I'm seeking some advice about the possible use of Nuvan strips our IPM contractor has suggested to treat cloths moth infested taxidermy mounts and upholstered chairs in our collection. The artifacts in question are two elk mounts and two large carved wood & velvet upholstered chairs. All objects are too large to utilize a freezing method, and after several years attempting to control the infestation with cleaning and monitoring, the activity of moths remains. I've read on the MuseumPests Pesticide database that dichlorvos may affect red dyes and other textile colors--our upholstered chairs are a maroon color so this now worries me as it may not be a safe option for the chairs. I'm wondering if anyone has experience with Nuvan strips and if it had any effect on your artifacts. Or if there are other safer alternatives? Thank you in advance! [Image removed by sender. Forest Service Shield] Katelynn Ulmer Library/Museum Technician US Forest Service State, Private, and Tribal Forestry Grey Towers National Historic Site p: 570-296-9678 [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> 151 Grey Towers Dr. Milford, PA 18337 www.fs.fed.us<https://www.fs.fed.us/> [Image removed by sender. USDA Logo]<https://usda.gov/> [Image removed by sender. Forest Service Twitter] <https://twitter.com/forestservice> [Image removed by sender. USDA Facebook] <https://www.facebook.com/pages/US-Forest-Service/1431984283714112> Caring for the land and serving people This electronic message contains information generated by the USDA solely for the intended recipients. Any unauthorized interception of this message or the use or disclosure of the information it contains may violate the law and subject the violator to civil or criminal penalties. If you believe you have received this message in error, please notify the sender and delete the email immediately. -- This PestList and the MuseumPests.com<http://museumpests.com/> web site are made possible due to the talent, intelligence, devotion and donations of hundreds of volunteers. Your donation to help this resource continue would be greatly appreciated. Please consider a donation donating at https://givebutter.com/MuseumPests To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> --- 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 visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pestlist/PH0PR09MB732226F969E404C5D40BF2B0EA44A%40PH0PR09MB7322.namprd09.prod.outlook.com<https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pestlist/PH0PR09MB732226F969E404C5D40BF2B0EA44A%40PH0PR09MB7322.namprd09.prod.outlook.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>. [cid:[email protected]] Dr. Jill Gordon Urban Entomologist Mantis Consulting 86 Crease Rd Mt. Olive NJ 07828 (973) 945-1776 [email protected] -- This PestList and the MuseumPests.com web site are made possible due to the talent, intelligence, devotion and donations of hundreds of volunteers. Your donation to help this resource continue would be greatly appreciated. Please consider a donation donating at https://givebutter.com/MuseumPests To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MuseumPests" group. 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