Hello all, We have a Navajo rug and native basketry exhibit coming in to our changing exhibits gallery and several of the rugs have shown webbing-like residue and one of the baskets has frass in the spaces between the weaving. I recently put some data loggers in our chest freezer and it only goes down to about -15 degrees C. I have read that -30 C is recommended but I would imagine it varies by pest. Is it possible that webbing clothes moths and, say, drugstore beetles are killed at higher temperatures?
I realize I am dreading talking to the curator and the director to tell them we either can't take these items for the exhibit or we need to buy a new freezer. Is there some way to achieve a good kill rate without such a low temperature? Repeated freeze/thaws etc? Could I add some dry ice? Rig something up to make it colder? It has also proven difficult to source local commercial freezers. I realize we will need to replace it eventually but my director is generally reluctant to spend money (I'm sure none of you can relate....) and I wonder if we can pull something together at least for this exhibit. Thank you for any input, Katy *Katharine Corneli* *Curator of Collections* | *Prehistoric Museum* *155 E Main, Price, Utah 84501* *Office*: 435-613-5765 *Email*: katharine.corn...@usu.edu -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Museumpests" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to pestlist+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to pestlist@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/pestlist. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pestlist/98b19e9c-4aff-4622-891a-1cc3673948b0%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
