Styrofoam

Regarding Janice Mohlenrich's query about styrofoam storage containers:
I recently examinined fifteen boxes of lettering tools which had been in
storage for the past 12 to 15 years.  They were in wooden boxes.  Insect
frass was piled at the base of the boxes. Three of the boxes were full
of carpenter ants.  The three boxes with the ants were the only boxes
which contained styrofoam packing blocks (or some similar compressed
ball type foam).  The nine other boxes were free of foam and ants. The
foam had been in the boxes since 1974 and probably came from England.
The ants probably came from Texas. (The frass had been accumulating for
two or three months.)While the ants nibbled a bit at the wooden handles
of the lettering tools, they seemed far more excited about the foam.

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 6:30
                Distributed: Wednesday, December 2, 1992
                        Message Id: cdl-6-30-002
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