THE FEASIBILITY OF USING MODIFIED ATMOSPHERES TO CONTROL INSECT PESTSIN MUSEUMS

The mortality of all life stages of pexts commonly found in museums wa s evaluated at 55% relative humidity and 25.5 degrees C in a nitrogen atmosphere (less than 0.1% oxygen). The insects studied were webbing c lothes moths, furniture carpet beetles, firebrats, cabinet beetles, la rder beetles, cigarette beetles, confused flour beetles. American cock roach, brownbanded cockroach, German cockroach, powderpost beetles and western drywood termites. The time required for 100% kill ranged from 3 hours for the adult firebrats to 192 hours for the eggs of the ciga rette beetles.