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Insley - The basement from which these items came had an infestation of subterranean termites. Once they were removed from the basement, that was the end of the activity. You're left with damage and lots of soil. Termites wall themselves off in humidity-controlled chambers and tubes by glueing soil grains together. The workers make trips back and forth to the soil to bring soil grains up to their workings. This situation is NOT active and there is no cause for doing any treatment, except of course, cleaning the materials. Tom Parker -----Original Message----- From: I Julier <[email protected]> To: pestlist <[email protected]> Sent: Fri, Mar 15, 2013 10:33 am Subject: [pestlist] pest id question 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. ----------------------------------------------------------- Hello, I just started work at a very small museum with archival collections. When I arrived, I came across an accession which was previously stored in the basement of a large wooden structure (by the donor), and is/was? clearly infested with some sort of insect. This infestation and the ensuing damage occurred prior to the museum taking custody of the records. I am wondering if someone can tell me from the photos what I am dealing with? What I believe is frass, appears as brown specks, which are adhered to the paper, but there is also granular, sand-like material in the envelopes in which the material is stored. It's difficult to tell if this is all frass or if the material is just really dirty, which is also possible. It is also hard for me to tell what might be frass and what might be eggs. I've found a few specks which appear to have web-like material attached and in the interior fold of one item, spider-web-like material. I've also found what appear to be shells/exoskeletons shed by insects, or possibly merely the remnants of dead insects. Unfortunately, my camera doesn't have a high enough resolution to get a good picture of this. I'm trying to figure out first what I am dealing with so that I can then decide how to treat the materials. I'm an archivist by training and this is my first time dealing with any major pest issue. I stumbled upon a powerpoint of insect frass online and the closest thing I could find was termites, since they excrete dirt as well as whatever else they are munching on. Is it possible that this is termite damage? I'm attaching some photos. Sorry for the poor quality! Thank you for any assistance you can provide! Insley ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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]
