It’s cold in the Dülmen city archives. But not because of a broken heating system. The frost is part of a sophisticated system for controlling pests.
In the fight against paper fish, which pose a serious threat to historical documents, the Dülmen City Archives have decided on an unusual method. As the city of Dülmen revealed on its Facebook page, all newly arrived files, books and photos are placed in a household freezer for 24 hours to kill the small pests.
After an initial infestation a few weeks ago, the LWL archives office was asked for advice and the decision was made to freeze the documents to combat the paperfish.
City archivist Stefan Sudmann was initially not convinced by this practice, but has now seen the benefits. “Our intern initially found it unusual,” Sudmann was quoted as saying by “WDR”. The freezer in which the documents are frozen is in the small kitchen of the city archives, but is not intended for food. Sudmann makes it clear that all visitors will be informed about this. Word of this chilling method of pest control has already spread and could potentially be rolled out to more agencies.
It’s not just archivists who have to deal with pests. Gardening enthusiasts can also sing a song about it. But you don’t need chemical or expensive pest controllers to combat them. The simple home remedy baking soda achieves the desired result in many cases.
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