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Hungary's oldest library is fighting to save books from a beetle infestation

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Re: Hungary's oldest library is fighting to save books from a beetle infestation

#6

Post by chmod775 »

funnym0nk3y wrote: post #4

I'm surprised that they use such a tame method for eradication. I expected the use of huge loads of insecticides.

You could spray insecticides and kill some percentage while damaging the books further.

Or you put them in a sealed environment with no oxygen, killing every single one of these beetles.

I'm not sure that the more lethal option is "tame".

Re: Hungary's oldest library is fighting to save books from a beetle infestation

#7

Post by MichaelRo »

chmod775 wrote: post #6
funnym0nk3y wrote: post #4

I'm surprised that they use such a tame method for eradication. I expected the use of huge loads of insecticides.

You could spray insecticides and kill some percentage while damaging the books further. Or you put them in a sealed environment with no oxygen, killing every single one of these beetles. I'm not sure that the more lethal option is "tame".

How about stuffing the books in a freezer? Apparently this can kill both bugs and their eggs, although I'm not sure it works on the particular kind of bugs in these books:

https://www.reddit.com/r/IsItBullshit/comments/orpifq/isitbu...

Also there exist "ultra low" freezers which can bring temperature waay lower than the regular -20 Celsius. Like -80 or something. I doubt any bug or egg can survive such environment, although the books should suffer no harm.

Re: Hungary's oldest library is fighting to save books from a beetle infestation

#10

Post by krisoft »

MichaelRo wrote: post #7
chmod775 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could spray insecticides and kill some percentage while damaging the books further. Or you put them in a sealed environment with no oxygen, killing every single one of these beetles. I'm not sure that the more lethal option is "tame".

How about stuffing the books in a freezer? Apparently this can kill both bugs and their eggs, although I'm not sure it works on the particular kind of bugs in these books: https://www.reddit.com/r/IsItBullshit/comments/orpifq/isitbu... Also there exist "ultra low" freezers which can bring temperature waay lower than the regular -20 Celsius. Like -80 or something. I doubt any bug or egg can survive such environment, a…

I do not doubt that freezing them would kill the bugs. I would be worried that unless it is very carefully managed it might damage the books though. In particular i would worry that moisture from the air would freeze on the books and as they are thawed they would get water damaged. Or that moisture trapped inside the bindings would form ice crystals and physically damage the books as they form.

None of these are concern with the hypoxic treatment they choose. Plus the nitrogen atmosphere treatment is so much simpler on the practical level. Instead of bringing in freezers and powering them for the whole duration of the treatment all you need is some crates, plastic bags and nitrogen bottles. Makes it much easier to bring the treatment where the books are, thus you avoid all kind of complications with transporting the books.

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