I would pull the cover off from around the compressor/ motor and inspect just
to make sure there is not some strange micro climate/food source...maybe they
are climbing up from there and just appearing that they have made to through
the magnetic freezer seal. If there is a drop ceiling/ grid work check up there
as well. Those are the only two thing I can come up with. Good Luck and please
keep us updated. This is an interesting mystery. JTV
Joel Voron Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Conservation Dept.
Integrated Pest Management
Office 757-220-7080<tel:757-220-7080>
Cell 757-634-1175<tel:757-634-1175>
E-Mail jvo...@cwf.org<mailto:jvo...@cwf.org>
[X]
On Dec 8, 2018, at 4:58 PM, Angelica Isa-Adaniya
<a.isa14...@gmail.com<mailto:a.isa14...@gmail.com>> wrote:
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<mailto: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<mailto:pestlist@googlegroups.com>
<pestlist@googlegroups.com<mailto:pestlist@googlegroups.com>> On Behalf Of
Breitung, Eric
Sent: Thursday, December 06, 2018 11:33 AM
To: pestlist@googlegroups.com<mailto: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<mailto: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<mailto:pestlist@googlegroups.com>
<pestlist@googlegroups.com<mailto:pestlist@googlegroups.com>> On Behalf Of Todd
Holmberg
Sent: Thursday, December 06, 2018 11:05 AM
To: pestlist@googlegroups.com<mailto: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<mailto: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. Any suggestions or help would be very, very, very much
appreciated!!!
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