Pest management

Mark Hingley <mark.hingley [at] norfolk__gov__uk> writes

>I should be very grateful if conservators with experience of working
>in archives could advise me of the policies they have in place for
>dealing with the potential health risks involved with the handling
>of vermin contaminated documents. The vermin particularly in mind are
>rats, mice and pigeons.

I have had some experience dealing with risks from pigeon
infestations. See article in

    Integrated Pest Management for Collections--Proceedings of 2001
    Pest Odyssey--Eds. Kingsley, H. et al., p.106-113.

I also suggest you contact your local Council Environmental Health
Officer--they should be able to give you fairly well informed,
unbiased (ie. they are not a pest control company) details of
potential health risks, though some of their strategies for dealing
with the risks might not be appropriate to archives.

Susan Rees
B.A. B.Sc. ACR
Technical Officer Conservation
Leisure and Arts Dept.
Dundee City Council
McManus Galleries
Albert Sq.
Dundee DD1 1DA


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 17:57
                  Distributed: Tuesday, March 2, 2004
                       Message Id: cdl-17-57-008
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