next message in archive
next message in thread
previous message in archive
Index of Subjects
Any insectophiles on this list... I thought it might be useful to open up this topic up to others who might have more advice. I've been conversing with Dave Webster off-line about protecting insect collections against the ravages of dermestid beetle attacks on pinned insects. I'm not a serious collector but keep a few specimens of things I've been interested in for reference and for ID, and recently found that I had had a small box of these from last year chewed up by these beetle larvae (it's not a professional box and isn't fully bug-tight). Dave offered the valuable advice first to protect the insects while they are drying, which I haven't been doing, because that's when the dermestids may lay eggs on them. He has also used paradichlorobenzene (PDCB) in the collection boxes. My chewed-up box had pinned in it a piece of Vapona strip (a solid but permeable plastic laced with dichlorvos as active ingredient), but the Vapona was ~20 years old and of uncertain origin. It may well have lost its effectiveness, or else the box was so non-airtight that a useful concentration of bug repellent was not maintained inside it. Dave has no experience of using Vapona himself. Does anyone have any other advice on this, re. PDCB versus Vapona or some other substitute? Also, does anyone know a current source for purchase of Vapona/dichlorvos or similar in Canada, if indeed it is still available? A reply off-line would be OK, but I think that several people on this list might also be interested in a brief discussion of the best current curatorial methods for protecting insect collections against dermestid larvae, which seem to be the main cuprits. Maybe there are web resources (I haven't checked)? -- anyway, I'd welcome any practical info on this topic. Steve, Halifax
next message in archive
next message in thread
previous message in archive
Index of Subjects