The Use of Oxygen-Free Environments in the Control of Museum Insect Pests

Shin Maekawa and Kerstin Elert

Museums throughout the world face the challenge of finding nontoxic methods to control insect pests. This book focuses on practical rather than theoretical issues in the use of oxygen-free environments, presenting a detailed, hands-on guide to the use of oxygen-free environments in the eradication of museum insect pests.

The volume discusses the use of nitrogen as the inert gas used to replace oxygen, and on the use of a few specific types of containers as treatment chambers. An initial chapter explains the general advantages anoxia offers museum conservators. Subsequent chapters discuss methods and materials, small-scale anoxia using an oxygen absorber, large-scale anoxia using external nitrogen sources, and protocols for insect eradication using nitrogen anoxia. Appendices include a list of manufacturers and suppliers of material and equipment used in nitrogen anoxia.

Shin Maekawa, coauthor of Inert Gases in the Control of Museum Insect Pests (Getty Publications, 1998) and editor of Oxygen-Free Museum Cases (Getty Publications, 1998), is a senior scientist at the Getty Conservation Institute. Kerstin Elert is a research fellow at the University of Granada, Spain.