Hi Everyone, I would not recommend heat treatment, you may alter the chemistry of the minerals/ damage them. Nor would I recommend freezing. We visually check for pests, and ensure that when material is coming in any old packing materials have been replaced (as this is the larger issue when harbouring pests is concerned). Is it possible to remove the specimens from the plaster jackets to do this?
There won't be anything for the beetles to live on, so you could just seal them in with the specimen to contain them temporarily while you come up with a solution. Happy to help further if I can Zoë Zoë Hughes Curator of Brachiopods and Cephalopods Department of Earth Sciences The Natural History Museum Cromwell Road London SW7 5BD T +44 (0)20 7942 5470 E z.hug...@nhm.ac.uk<mailto:z.hug...@nhm.ac.uk> Follow the collections on Twitter: @NHM_Brachiopoda @NHM_Cephalopoda Please note that from January 01 2011, the museum's preferred acronym for specimen citations is NHMUK From: pestlist@googlegroups.com <pestlist@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Alan P Van Dyke Sent: 20 December 2021 16:05 To: pestlist@googlegroups.com Subject: Re: [PestList] Dermestid beetles potentially infesting fossil specimens 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<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hrc.utexas.edu%2F&data=04%7C01%7Cz.hughes%40nhm.ac.uk%7Caafbc5e633ce4b37408908d9c3d27123%7C73a29c014e78437fa0d4c8553e1960c1%7C1%7C0%7C637756132049476398%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=3PbVtFdlWZjDfrfwkHDjL%2FkFP6xENWOUTeVANlqse2Y%3D&reserved=0> [https://docs.google.com/uc?export=download&id=1rqiR2nrgyoj0efqQIZR-nz7WGyw16bBn&revid=0B14-z3QUvdNTT0UyTlZJMUl4dHErTWYzVWdnSnVOUE90alBFPQ]<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fhrc.utexas.edu%2F&data=04%7C01%7Cz.hughes%40nhm.ac.uk%7Caafbc5e633ce4b37408908d9c3d27123%7C73a29c014e78437fa0d4c8553e1960c1%7C1%7C0%7C637756132049476398%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=PM7c8DQ%2Fq%2B5BQWOyRq9YYal7hmDYlJ6n9jVDqNcrRoE%3D&reserved=0> On Thu, Dec 16, 2021 at 10:09 PM Dawn, Melissa <melissa.d...@montana.edu<mailto: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<mailto: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>. 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