It’s springtime, and that means BUGS, SPIDERS, FLIES and all sorts of insects abound, and that (in turn) gets us thinking two things:
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More house work
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How do museums stop creepycrawlies?
The education mob was provided with some answers to our second thought by Donna Wilks, a preventative technical officer who works for the conservation section of the National Museum of Australia. In a fantastic professional development session we had recently she explained that all objects coming in to the Museum need to be carefully inspected and treated if there is a chance of insect infestation. Last thing we want is the entire National Historical Collection plagued by bookworms, silverfish, carpet beetles, termites, book lice, moths, borers, cockroaches or mice/rats.
Interestingly, the frontline method of dealing with insects is freezing! Such a simple, safe solution! Of course, moisture can be a bit of a hazard when freezing objects, so all objects are wrapped in calico, then plastic before spending their week in the deep freeze. When they are removed from the freezer they are not unwrapped for 24 hours.
Hmm, but what about objects that can’t be frozen? Conservators do have other methods at their fingertips, such as sealing an object in a plastic bag along with some oxygen scavenger sachets to asphyxiate any creatures. Of equal interest to us were some of the things that can’t be frozen: bone, old photos, oil and acrylic painting on canvas, ivory and coral!
So, that was our second thought answered. In relation to our first thought, I think we’ll find the answer to that in the same cupboard we keep the hoover and the duster!
What I would like to know is how do I get rid of those terrible little moths at home? – the ones that eat my NICE clothes…! Sometimes I get so frustrated I would love to throw my wardrobe into the freezer; there’s a little problem with size however, and where would I store the ice cream?
It was a great session with Donna, and your post brought to my mind our “Then and Now” program Ange. So, because I wanted to share some pics, I have created another post.