Melissa, This is an interesting and disturbing challenge. Hopefully, the dermestids won’t cause a problem to the fossils, themselves. More likely, they’ll help clean any organic debris from the crevices of those old specimens. As you mentioned, there’s a greater concern of introducing dermestids into the museum, where they might find more tasty treats to damage.
How large are the beetle-harboring fossils, and can you store them in your classroom for an extended interval? Perhaps, they might be encased in suitably gas-tight bags or chambers and maintained in low-oxygen conditions? Might you have a cold storage facility (that maintains suitably low temperatures) nearby that would accept your dermestid-endowed fossils? If only you had a large vessel containing a colony of predatory ants to help cleanse the fossils. As far as the reckless graduate students, consider this a teachable moment. Encourage them to sit for hours to seek and remove any beetles from the fossils, all while enjoying the Bozeman winter, outside, while barefoot and in shorts. That would be memorable. Good luck! Rich Richard J. Pollack, PhD HARVARD UNIVERSITY Environmental Health and Safety (EH&S) Senior Environmental Public Health Officer 46 Blackstone St. Cambridge, MA 02139 Office: 617-495-2995 Cell: 617-447-0763 www.ehs.harvard.edu richard_poll...@harvard.edu<mailto:richard_poll...@harvard.edu> From: <pestlist@googlegroups.com> on behalf of "Dawn, Melissa" <melissa.d...@montana.edu> Reply-To: "pestlist@googlegroups.com" <pestlist@googlegroups.com> Date: Thursday, December 16, 2021 at 11:09 PM To: "pestlist@googlegroups.com" <pestlist@googlegroups.com> Subject: [PestList] Dermestid beetles potentially infesting fossil specimens Dear Pestlist, I have an unusual question I am desperately hoping someone can help Museum Of The Rockies with today. Our paleontology department took several large fossils over to our university for use in a class. A graduate student left a jar of dermestid beetles open overnight. Yes, that happened. Thousands of beetles escaped the jar and have now been in contact with the fossils. It is unknown if there are any beetles inside the fossils, but they are in jackets and also have many crevices, so we must assume there may be some beetles inside the specimens. We do not have a freezer for controlled low temperature treatment at our museum. (We don’t know if the university labs may have one, but even if they do, we don’t know if we would be able to use it, so we are hoping to find a different method we can do ourselves.) Other than freezing, does anyone have suggestions for the proper protocols for treatment? E.g., suggestions for what we can do with them, how long they should be quarantined before they return to the museum, or if there’s a way to keep them separated in the museum, when will it be safe to return them to the collection, etc. Perhaps someone has experience with reckless students allowing beetles to invade collections… It is rather cold in Montana right now, but it hasn’t been getting to -20! Thank you for any advice you may have, Melissa Melissa Dawn Interim Registrar & Collections Manager Division of the Humanities Museum of the Rockies melissa.d...@montana.edu 406.994.2242<tel:406.994.2242> 600 West Kagy Blvd. PO Box 172720 Bozeman, MT 59717 -- 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<mailto:pestlist+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com>. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pestlist/MWHPR02MB3229B10FA7437A9E5B66212588789%40MWHPR02MB3229.namprd02.prod.outlook.com<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__groups.google.com_d_msgid_pestlist_MWHPR02MB3229B10FA7437A9E5B66212588789-2540MWHPR02MB3229.namprd02.prod.outlook.com-3Futm-5Fmedium-3Demail-26utm-5Fsource-3Dfooter&d=DwMFaQ&c=WO-RGvefibhHBZq3fL85hQ&r=GO7C3XN3WgFy2IP-bFBbnUs_CYntqj57Dprtl40-_KE&m=gUYWu8awpxzlGkPgujRh15IBkc_O6XyrZVKRZXa6IwyiRGAa_xlgjealQGhgfWUt&s=14y_CoAjzt2KDgq3bqm1MHI8Vg74tuMDzifCw3a6rTM&e=>. -- 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 view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pestlist/C681597D-65A2-4C27-9F7A-AF184F6FF218%40harvard.edu.
