The Use of Fumigants in Archival Repositories

Abstract

Human history, as the archivist must deal with it, is a fragile thing. Heir to the depredations of fire, flood, and man-made catastrophes, the paper record may also be the subject of more insidious injuries caused by those organisms which regard it as food or as a nesting material. More than 70 species of insects and 100 species of fungi are known to attack archival and library materials. Of the insect predators, cockroaches, silverfish, termites, woodworms, bookworms, black beetles, booklice, and crickets predominate as stack pests in North America and Europe. These creatures find especially attractive the cellulose content of paper, and the starch paste, animal glue, and leather components of bound volumes. Damage from insects may range from superficial attacks made on starch paste by booklice to the overwhelming destruction of the body of a document or book made by a severe termite or woodworm infestation.1