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CCI Newsletter, No. 38, 2007

Cooperation between CCI (Canada) and Tobunken (Japan) on Integrated Pest Management Research and Training

by Tom Strang, Senior Conservation Scientist, CCI, and Rika Kigawa, Senior Researcher,

Many of the pest management challenges we face in Canadian museums are shared by museums in Japan. About 70% of the pest species are similar. The building or site issues, ranging from outdoor locales to modern facilities, are much the same. Subterranean termites, a common problem in Japan, will increase in Canada as our climate warms. And international agreements that limit the use of popular fumigants due to their ozone-depleting effect are creating comparable legislative environments and workplace restrictions. Given these parallels, cooperation between CCI and Tobunken in integrated pest management (IPM) research work and training can maximize the benefits for both Canada and Japan. My collaboration with Dr. Rika Kigawa helped us to demonstrate the low adverse impact and the effectiveness of pest control strategies other than proscribed and candidate replacement fumigants, and to improve our teaching of the IPM “toolkit” for protecting cultural heritage.

Rika and I first met at the 2001 conference A Pest Odyssey in London, England, where she presented a paper on nitrogen and carbon dioxide (CO2) fumigant efficacy on common East Asian museum pest species. I had previously developed controlled atmosphere fumigation guidelines through review of agricultural pest literature, and recognized that the conclusions of her work were very similar to my own. From our ensuing discussion around this common concern we discovered more shared research goals, and decided to work cooperatively.

Our first joint paper was a small investigation into the absorption of CO2 fumigant by different materials. The results showed that concrete absorbs CO2 strongly, making concrete-walled chambers unsuitable for CO2 fumigation. This strong absorption was already known by engineers, but not fully appreciated by pest control firms — a fact that had led to the unsuccessful use of CO2 fumigation in buildings with exposed concrete surfaces in both Japan and North America. As part of this study, we also determined the relative significance of CO2 absorption in other common fumigation loads to see how much it might affect gas consumption in fumigation chambers.

Another shared research thread was the concern that fumigants might damage natural history specimen DNA. I had previously conducted work on this topic1 that had interpreted post-treatment seed viability as an indicator of damage to organic molecules such as DNA. Rika, who has a background in molecular biology, and her colleagues published an investigation of damage by fumigants and thermal methods to specimen DNA.2 Her study corroborated my earlier work, but went further than mine in that it compared a wider number of fumigants used in Japan and Asia. Although some of these are not used in North America or Europe, the information is still valuable to Canadians as many international loans are subject to quarantine treatment with compounds not registered within Canadian borders. Rika and I are currently conducting a joint study of the effects of fumigants and alternate control methods on sensitive materials such as those found in natural history collections, archives, and fine arts. The results will help to rank damage and further guide treatment choices for a worldwide audience.

In 2002, I presented a lecture series in Japan, funded by Tobunken, on IPM principles and alternative treatments. This theme was adopted because the erstwhile common fumigant for cultural objects, methyl bromide, was scheduled to be discontinued in 2004 to meet commitments under the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer — an agreement that had been ratified by both Japan and Canada in 1988. In a contributing lecture, Dr. Naoko Sonoda reported on an in situ heat treatment of a large wooden boat on display at Minpaku (National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, Japan). This project, guided by my published works on the subject, was the first practical application of heat treatment of cultural property in Japan. The method met many desired criteria at Minpaku. Not only could it be performed in situ on a difficult-to-move item, it was non-toxic, rapid (minimal disruption for staff and visitors), efficacious (it killed all the wood-boring beetle larvae in large-dimension timbers), and allowed the rest of a large gallery to remain open to visitors throughout the treatment. As a follow-up to this lecture series, an extensive review article on IPM for Japanese museums was published.

In 2003, Rika came to Canada to view CCI’s facilities and meet with our researchers. Together we visited six Canadian institutions (two archives, an art gallery, a provincial museum, a natural history museum, and a science museum) that CCI had previously advised on IPM issues. By comparing the use of IPM in these Canadian institutions with the IPM principles adopted by some Japanese institutions, we were able to observe how IPM could be tailored to address specific problems, and obviate the need for fumigants.

In 2004, Tobunken provided funding for us to develop a 3-day workshop to train Japanese collection-care professionals in IPM. We approached this task with the added intention of improving the means of delivering this type of training, which would ultimately benefit both our institutions. The workshop included short talks, exercises, practice with treatment methods, and team case studies at the National Museum of Japanese History (Rekihaku). It was very well received by the participants, who went on to apply their new knowledge in their institutions.

In 2005, Tobunken held a colloquium where attendees of the 2004 workshop, along with other institutions, reported on their work in IPM. Participants shared their use of treatments, mapping, and IPM Web applications for distributing institutional communications and knowledge. They discussed pest control programs they had used as alternatives to fumigation, and described situations and countermeasures within various institutions. Following the colloquium, we published an article3 on the realities of applying IPM to situations ranging from outdoor sites to temples to historic houses to modern preservation facilities. Physical considerations were arranged, for argument’s sake, as discrete “levels” at which some IPM efforts make more sense than others due to additive factors such as enclosure quality, construction materials, and purpose behind the institution. The publication was designed to be a first guide for those considering the adoption of IPM and to help them separate the essentials from the niceties. The work was also seen as a basis for setting standards of IPM across diverse holdings of cultural property.

Thanks to additional travel funding from Tobunken, Rika and I have also been able to discuss pest problems and site-specific application of IPM with key people at Minpaku (Osaka), Kyoto National Museum restoration studio, Nijojo castle (Kyoto), Rekihaku (Sakura), and Kyushu National Museum (Fukuoka), sharing experiences and solutions between Canadian and Japanese institutions.

In November 2006, a conference at Tobunken on pests of outdoor wood objects brought together specialists in termites, traditional temple restoration, and conservation science, to exchange current views on combating wood-destroying organisms — a persistent hazard to cultural property.

Our collaboration has combined our capabilities to carry out scientific research and apply practical methods. Both our institutions and countries will benefit from this cooperative effort.

  1. Strang, T.J.K. “Sensitivity of Seeds in Herbarium Collections to Storage Conditions, and Implications for Thermal Insect Pest Control Methods." Chapter 4, pp. 81–102 in Managing the Modern Herbarium: An Interdisciplinary Approach (edited by D.A. Metsger and S.C. Byers). Vancouver, BC: Elton-Wolf, 1999, 384 pp.

  2. Kigawa, R., H. Nochide, H. Kimura, and S. Miura. “Effects of Various Fumigants, Thermal Methods and Carbon Dioxide Treatment on DNA Extraction and Amplification: A Case Study on Freeze-Dried Mushroom and Freeze-Dried Muscle Specimens.” Collection Forum 18, 1–2 (2003), pp. 74–89.

  3. Strang, T.J.K., and R. Kigawa. “Levels of IPM Control: Matching Conditions to Performance and Effort.” Collection Forum 21, 1–2 (2006), pp. 96–116.