This is a message from the Museumpests List. To post to this list send it as an email to [email protected] To unsubscribe please look at the footer of this email. ----------------------------------------------------------- A corporate client in Queens, NY, has a large sculpture (10 ft. high, 4 ft. in diameter) that is, to be blunt, a vertical hollow log with a "doorway" cut in one side. It was exhibited outdoors in the South for some number of years, and then was brought to New York but kept horizontal in a cradle in a space next to an unheated loading dock. Although there was substantial "old" insect damage at the top and bottom, no active infestation was visible until the piece was taken out of the cradle. I am told that there was recent damage in the areas that rested against the cradle. (I have not seen it yet.)
Some samples of frass are being sent to me - I am told there are no dead bug bodies around, but that after a piece of white paper was left on the deck, frass appeared by morning. (I suspect that maintenance staff cleaned up without reporting anything.) The piece is now in a corporate lobby (nowhere near any other works of art). So here are my questions: Assuming that there is an infestation, is there any way to fix this other than fumigation under a tarp? I don't think there is anywhere to put it for long enough to do anoxia. At this point, does identification of the critter matter? Is there someone out there who can take on this job? I would be eternally grateful. UPDATE: I received a baggie of debris in the mail. It looks like crumbs of deteriorated wood to me - can't make out any frass, but I would be happy to send it to anyone willing to check it out. Maybe the reason they couldn't find bugs was that there weren't any. Obviously if there is an infestation, I want to do something about it, but it may be that there was water under the wood on the cradle and that freeze-thaw cycles resulted in rotting and crumbling of the wood, particularly where it wouldn't have an opportunity to dry out. Barbara Appelbaum Appelbaum & Himmelstein 444 Central Park West New York, NY 10025 212-666-4630 (voice) 212-316-1039 (fax) [email protected] website: aandhconservation.org ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To send an email to the list, send your msg to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this list send an email to [email protected] and in the subject put: "unsubscribe" - no quotes please. You are receiving the Pestlist emails in standard mode. To change to the DIGEST mode send an email to [email protected] with this command in the body: set mode digest pestlist Any problems email [email protected] or [email protected]
