This is a message from the Museumpests List. To post to this list send it as an email to pestlist@museumpests.net To unsubscribe please look at the footer of this email. ----------------------------------------------------------- Hello,
I'm looking for advice re: a book lice / psocid situation. I'm currently living in an apartment building that appears to have a psocid population either around the building, or in the walls. I have found them in 2 rooms that have had an open window (bedroom and kitchen), and I eventually started noticing them in a 3rd room without an open window (meaning they eventually crawled there, or perhaps were moved there when I moved a bookcase from the bedroom to this 3rd room). I have only noticed them around August / September, but have seen them on 3 separate years during those months. After the first year, I installed a dehumidifier and did my best to keep the relative humidity around at most 50%. I've never seen a huge infestation, just regular sightings of them. I.e. if I inspect an entire bookcase, I'm likely to find 10-15 roaming along the edges of books or within the front or back cover. I've kept things clean, I've vacuumed, I've inspected for mold (none I could find within my actual apartment), and I've done what I can to keep the humidity down - but I still always find a handful on any given inspection during what I assume are their peak months. I'm now moving, and want to avoid bringing these with me to my new apartment. We're far from August / September, so inspections turn up nothing - but I'm worried there are eggs or dormant psocids inside book spines or something similar. Freezing doesn't seem viable considering both the size of my collection (thousand or more books, plus other collection items like CDs / DVDs and comic books / magazines) and the lack of access to anything other than a standard household refrigerator freezer. I understand some level of psocid activity is to be expected in most households. Given the conditions I've described, does it sound plausible that the actual infestation is somewhere else in the apartment building, and I'm just seeing scavengers looking for food before returning to the home base? Can they set up shop and lay eggs and such in my bookcases even given my attempts to control temperature and humidity? I know this is inherently vague, and it would be tough for concrete advice given you only have my description to go on. But any general advice for handling this, avoiding re-infestation of a new apartment, and gaining a realistic view on the pervasiveness of psocid activity would be much appreciated. Thanks! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To send an email to the list, send your msg to pestlist@museumpests.Net To unsubscribe from this list send an email to pestlist@museumpests.net and in the subject put: "unsubscribe" - no quotes please. You are receiving the Pestlist emails in standard mode. To change to the DIGEST mode send an email to imail...@museumpests.net with this command in the body: set mode digest pestlist Any problems email l...@collectionpests.com or l...@zaks.com
