Dear Matt, Thanks for your suggestions. I was corresponding with Tony Irwin, and we have managed to actually identify these as *Trychorinus herbarius* or Mexican book beetle instead of the initial *Stegobium*. This explains why I was finding them as a pest on both vegetable materials and wood. It also seems that my colleagues say they introduced boxes of old archaeological material into the room where the freezer is, so the beetles are in fact presumably coming from these and flying *towards* the moisture in the seals and into the freezer, rather than the other way around - which makes me so happy!
Thank you all for all your suggestions and help. The ID and your thoughts will really help us take some new measures to combat the plagues - and I will probably not even need to resort to anything chemical. Best wishes and a happy holidays to all, Angelica On Fri, 7 Dec 2018 at 17:45, Matthew Mickletz <mmi...@winterthur.org> wrote: > Hello, > > > > I’m not sure all I can contribute other than similar questions and > suggestions to Gretchen and Eric and echo them. > > > > - Getting a new seal to the freezer might not be too costly. And > if it isn’t open closed often, as I’m assuming most likely not for a full > Cycle in the freezer, maybe tape around it? > > > > - Erect a plastic mini-room/bubble around the freezer if there > is room? Place sticky traps in that space. You might be able to reason > buying 4 mill plastic and other stuff by also saying it can be used in > Collection Emergencies (worth a try?) > > > > - Second the bagging objects in whatever you have available > > > > - As Gretchen said: finding the source of them is key. Unless > they are known as only coming in consistently on objects and from nowhere > else? > > > > Hope this ongoing conversation is helping! > > > > Best of luck, > Matt > > > > Matthew A. Mickletz – Manager, Preventive Conservation – Winterthur Museum > <http://www.winterthur.org/> – 302.888.4752 > > > > *From:* pestlist@googlegroups.com <pestlist@googlegroups.com> *On Behalf > Of *Breitung, Eric > *Sent:* Thursday, December 06, 2018 11:33 AM > *To:* pestlist@googlegroups.com > *Subject:* Re: [External] - RE: [pestlist] Serious concern with biscuit > beetles - Please help! > > > > To solve the short term issue if escaping adults, you could go through the > effort of hermetically sealing the objects in marvelseal or other heat > sealable bags- even large ziplock style bags to avoid any chance of > escaping. > > > > Eric > > From phone > > > On Dec 6, 2018, at 11:14 AM, Anderson, Gretchen <anders...@carnegiemnh.org> > wrote: > > That is very interesting and unusual. I have a couple of > thoughts/questions: > > 1. Have you checked the seals on the freezer? They may need repair if > the beetles are actually escaping from the freezer. > 2. Does your freezer have a defrost cycle? -29 deg. C should be more > than adequate – and a month is more than enough time for a kill. Defrost > cycles warm up the freezer to reduce frost. Your data logger should be > able to tell that. > 3. Remember that neither thermal (freeze, heat) nor anoxic treatments > are residual. You will continue to have infestation problems until you > deal with the source of the infestation. Do you have any idea where the > little darlings are coming from? Are there pest hotspots that you can > identify? > > > > Good Luck > Gretchen Anderson > > > > <image001.png> > > Gretchen Anderson > > Conservator > > Carnegie Museum of Natural History > > 5800 Baum Blvd. > > Pittsburgh PA 15206 > > Phone: 412-665-2607 > > Cell: 412-420-9083 > > > > > > > > *From:* pestlist@googlegroups.com <pestlist@googlegroups.com> *On Behalf > Of *Todd Holmberg > *Sent:* Thursday, December 06, 2018 11:05 AM > *To:* pestlist@googlegroups.com > *Subject:* Re: [pestlist] Serious concern with biscuit beetles - Please > help! > > > > Interesting- It will be interesting to hear peoples thoughts on this one. > > > > Just to clarify regarding the escaped beetles, are the objects > bagged/wrapped while in the freezer? > > > > -Todd > > > > On Thu, Dec 6, 2018 at 9:42 AM a.isa14022 <a.isa14...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Dear all, > > > > I hope you can help me because I'm going crazy here. > > I've been putting wood and gourd items into my commercial freezer, which > goes down to -29°C and leaving them there for a month after detecting > biscuit beetles (because nothing less seemed to do much - forget 3 days or > a week). I have a data logger in there, so I know the temperature is > definitely down there. The items go in from room temperature straight into > -29°C because we keep the freezer on all the time It takes a datalogger > wrapped in a bag as if it were an object less than 30mins to drop down to > -29°C. Recently, I started having to put in objects that I had treated > earlier this year apart from others as well. I've put in 37 objects since > the 19th of September and still counting. > > > > I noticed two days ago that there were biscuit beetles all around the > rubber seals of my freezer, on the *outside*. When I brushed them off > onto the ground, not a minute or two passed before they started waking up > and moving. I have no funds or access to anoxia or heat treatments in my > institution or out. All I have is the freezer, and now that doesn't seem to > be working at all except for making the adults literally escape from the > objects and squeeze themselves out through the rubber seals, after which > I'm literally having to step on them to make sure they're dead. I still > can't believe it. It seems the juveniles do get killed though, because I > have been able to shake dead ones out of objects before. > > > > Other than having to buy lock & lock boxes and seal everything up > individually after a time in the freezer, I don't know what else to do. I > was trying to avoid chemicals at all costs, but if my employer (the State) > refuses to buy more boxes, I will have to find something or risk losing the > whole wooden and gourd collection (It's not that large). There is no such > thing as reasoning with my employer, by the way. I have some thymol which I > bought a couple years ago for absolute, last-minute measures, but I just > don't know since I've heard about surface changes after thymol treatments > plus the well-known contentious issues about health hazards. > > > > If I should be allowed to call in a professional fumigation service, would > this be all right? Permethrins and all that? I don't have extraction, by > the way. I don't even have a lab. We just have an office and the storage > areas. I've experimented with putting isopropanol in with an object in a > little jar to try and slowly gas them. I know it kills woodlouse, at least, > for sure. I had to do a small, rather sad test with an unfortunate > straggler. I just can't tell if it worked on this wooden stick I tried > since it was too long for the freezer because there's so much frass inside > it that I can't get out that it's hard to tell if it really worked although > I did shake out several dead juveniles. > > > > I'm trying to be conservation conscious, humane, safe, and practical all > at the same time, but I'm afraid something will have to give somewhere > given my resources and circumstances. I really don't want to give up any of > these things, though. > > > > Sorry for the super long e-mail, but I've tried to give as many details as > I have at the moment. 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