I'm not too familiar with fossils, but my understanding is that they are mineral rather than organic. If that's the case, would a heat treatment work? Perhaps in an oven at 120F / 50C for 24 hours? Afterwards, maybe a three month quarantine. The good news is if the fossils are clean there won't be much for the dermestids to munch on.
Hopefully someone with more experience will chime in. Alan *Alan Van Dyke * Senior Preservation Technician Harry Ransom Center The University of Texas at Austin P.O. Drawer 7219 Austin, Texas 78713-7219 P: 512-232-4614 www.hrc.utexas.edu <http://hrc.utexas.edu> On Thu, Dec 16, 2021 at 10:09 PM Dawn, Melissa <melissa.d...@montana.edu> wrote: > 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 > > 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. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pestlist/MWHPR02MB3229B10FA7437A9E5B66212588789%40MWHPR02MB3229.namprd02.prod.outlook.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pestlist/MWHPR02MB3229B10FA7437A9E5B66212588789%40MWHPR02MB3229.namprd02.prod.outlook.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- 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/CAHhLO3bpQ8%3DHKNuBSf%2BZeuYm2CNNBvhuVqp-h-vVfsQeO%2B%2B9Xg%40mail.gmail.com.
