Abigail - If you are near a seaport, there are large, steel ship containers which will maintain minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit. In Israel, we used such a container for freezing a large quantity of books infested with Anobium punctatum beetle larvae. The container was delivered to the library parking lot and left there for as long as we needed it. The total cost was $600. Make sure the items are not packed tightly in the container. I'd leave them in for a week.
Another option is to take the materials to a frozen food warehouse. Such a warehouse usually has large freezer rooms which maintain the food at 0 degrees Fahrenheit. If you select this option, then you'd have to leave the materials for at least two weeks in order to compensate for the higher temperature. Thomas A. Parker, PhD President, Entomologist Pest Control Services, Inc. -----Original Message----- From: Abigail Stevens <[email protected]> To: [email protected] <[email protected]> Sent: Tue, May 18, 2010 5:25 am Subject: [pestlist] Pest Treaments Dear all, I work at the Manchester Museum in the UK, and we are about to embark on a redevelopment of our Mammals Gallery. All the taxidermy specimens on display will have to be moved to elsewhere in the Museum (including other collection stores) due to lack of storage space, and so to be on the safe side I would like to treat all the specimens as soon as they come off the gallery and before they go into their new/temporary home. We have a small chest freezer at the Museum that we use for treating small specimens, but there are an awful lot of specimens on the gallery, as well as several very large ones. We have used the walk-in freezer at Liverpool Conservation Centre in the past, but this would involve a great deal of journeys back and forth, and would be very time consuming. Please can anyone recommend a company in the north west that could provide the facilities to treat a large number of specimens on site? Ideally we are looking for a mobile freezer unit? Many thanks, Abby Abby Stevens Preventive Conservator Manchester Museum, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL 0161 3061590 [email protected]
