Author Topic: Slivefish removel and antique books?  (Read 1598 times)

tuppervillemuseum

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Slivefish removel and antique books?
« on: June 24, 2009, 11:14:33 am »
So I am a student employed at the Tupperville School Museum, located in Tupperville, Nova Scotia and I being hired on for the summer have a ton of questions about dealing with antiques. My first one however is probably my biggest problem. In a mass amount of the old books there are a ton of sliver fish. The museum is closed up all winter and it can get up to -20 here so I don't think cold will kill them off. We have to get rid of them somehow, but does anyone know if there is a way to effectively and safely deal with sliverfish in old books without harming the books? We can't leave them to keep destorying the books, and is there any preventitive measures we can take to ensure more sliver fish do not come about for next year.
I also want to confirm because someone told me to lay out all the books, spray raid and close off the museum and let it fumagate....however I don't know what kind of effect raid would have on these books
Thanks,
Jess (manager of the Tupperville Museum)

D&b antiques

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Re: Slivefish removel and antique books?
« Reply #1 on: June 24, 2009, 12:47:35 pm »
Raid would most likely kill them off for a while. but killing them all would certainly be a challange. plus the pyrethin's in the spray may damage the book's.

Silver fish like the roach, can survive for a year with out food. I might add Roach's can be a serious danger in used furniture. I would suggest removeing the moisture from the air that they injoy by useing a Dehumidifier large enough to handle the room size.

It will of course have to be checked on. too empty the water tank.

regularjoe2

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Re: Slivefish removel and antique books?
« Reply #2 on: June 24, 2009, 04:08:52 pm »
Welcome to the forum , tuppervillemuseum .

Silverfish abatement is a big problem .

If you go to owlsweb.info (Outagamie Waupaca Library System) you can find some good stuff about an infestation that happened at Stanford University ( esp. Meyer Library ) , as well as what they did about it .

Might be good mat'l for you & the staff there , as the folks at Stanford really got down to the nitty-gritty !

Tim

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Re: Slivefish removel and antique books?
« Reply #3 on: June 24, 2009, 08:32:10 pm »
We use Boric Acid. We sell used and out of print books and our inventory is boxed and on shelves. To keep silverfish as bay we sprinkle the acid in the box and among the books. It is a powder so it cleans off before it ships out.

Nasty little critters........... ........ :o

Tim

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Re: Slivefish removel and antique books?
« Reply #4 on: June 24, 2009, 08:34:48 pm »
................... ....and I would not use a spray as you will damage the books, not to mention the smell. I would hire an exterminator to come in and initially spray and fumigate your storage space, then follow up with the Boric Acid.

Nasty little critters ;D

tuppervillemuseum

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Re: Slivefish removel and antique books?
« Reply #5 on: June 27, 2009, 12:36:34 pm »
Did I mention I have a pretty tight budget, being as this is a governtment scantion job...I only have a limited amount in spending money, but Boric Acid sounds like a healthy solution for the books, me, and the people visting the museum...
SLIVERFISH are nasty little critters!
I'll get some boric acid tomorrow morning, I have shelves upon shelves of books to cover...
I figured it was a bad idea to use the Raid....
Thanks for the welcome I'm sure I'll be on here frequently as I try and manage this place :D