[Taxacom] pest strip and dermestids

[Thomas Labedz]

Greetings. A reminder that some chemicals (insecticides included) can cause accelerated deterioration and/or damage to curation materials, especially plastics and metals, associated with the specimens targeted for treatment. I'm reaching back now, but I remember vapona strips (no pest strips) being used but causing deformation in some plastics and accelerated corrosion to metal cases. I don't recall precisely if in this case it was the insecticide or the material into which the insecticide was impregnated that caused the issue. No pest strips were never intended to be used in a closed environment. I'd suggest minimal usage and looking about for a friendly meat locker willing to rent you a few square feet. Perhaps you can rent a deep freezer from an appliance store for a few weeks for treatment. Upon completion of your run with vapona I suggest looking very carefully at pins, hinges, etc. and especially at any labels produced by laser printers where the toner is plastic or plastic resin powder heated in the printing process to bond to the paper. I also remember joking with other CMs at the time that the effectiveness of vapona depended on how hard you smacked the insect with the box.
Thomas

Thomas E. Labedz, Collections Manager
Division of Zoology and Division of Botany
University of Nebraska State Museum

________________________________
From: Taxacom <taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu> on behalf of John Grehan via Taxacom <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, July 29, 2020 10:26 AM
To: JF Mate <aphodiinaemate at gmail.com>
Cc: Taxacom <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] pest strip and dermestids

Thanks to everyone on and off list for responses. I should have mentioned
that I do not have access to a large enough freezer, and certainly not one
that is cold enough. When I referred to 'vapona' I was using that in the
general sense. Specifically what I bought was 'no pest strip' which has as
its principle active ingredient dichlorvos (2, 2 dichlorovovinyl dimethyl
phosphate) and 'related compounds' (interesting that they are not required
to divulge those). Looks like I should keep the drawers with the pesticide
for at least a week and probably I will do that for two weeks to be sure.
Apparently the active ingredient has been banned in the EU since 1998!
Dichlorvos is apparently also used in vapona. Apparently prolonged exposure
may lead to death, genotoxic, neurological, reproductive, carcinogenic,
immunological, hepatic, renal, respiratory, metabolic, dermal and other
systemic effects Nasty stuff. And unregulated in the US at least in 2018..

John Grehan




On Wed, Jul 29, 2020 at 5:16 AM JF Mate <aphodiinaemate at gmail.com> wrote:

> Vapona might not kill the eggs until they enclose so I suggest a week. If
> you have access to a large enough freezer then I would freeze-treat the
> rest of the drawers for good measure. Bag each box, freeze for 24h, thaw
> 24h and refreeze 24h. Works for me and gets rid of all stages, plus psoids
> which are an issue in more humid areas like mine.
>
> Jason
>
>
> On Wed, 29 Jul 2020, 08:25 John Grehan via Taxacom, <
> taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu> wrote:
>
>> I have a small dermestid infestation in some drawers that do not have any
>> pesticide (as they are in a home) so I have transferred them to outside
>> storage and placed some pest strip in each (sometimes called vapona). I
>> would be grateful if anyone knows how long it should take to kill any
>> dermestids still in the drawer or within any specimens.
>>
>> John Grehan
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