I'm sick and tired of losing good brood comb to worms (who isn't) and
have wondered if anyone has insights on using the reintroduced Shell No
Pest strips or their cousins to protect brood comb in storage.  I've
checked the archives and find only one reference to NoPest strips, and
it indicates they're quite deadly to bees (killing a colony out of an
overstuffed chair in Australia).  The pesticide in the strip is a vapor,
so traces of it hopefully would evaporate just as paradichlorobenzene
(Para-Moth) does.

The strips use the organophosphate pesticide dichlorvos, aka DDVP.  Cal
Dept of Pesticide Regulation moved in 1999 to deregulate their use near
humans for fear of toxic reactions, a continuation of CA's "no safe
threshold" approach to all chemicals.  According to  Jean-Mari Peltier,
DPR Chief Deputy Director in 1999 "Our action is not based on illness
data or known problems, but on a risk assessment. Risk assessments are
inherently theoretical since they are based in large part on
extrapolations of effects seen in animal studies. However, we do have
concerns about exposure of children which can be addressed by removing
pest strips from home use."  The US Dept of Defense won't allow the
strips where infants, elderly, or ill persons would be exposed
constantly, such as patient rooms or day rooms.

The strips are approved for hanging in the presence of grains in storage
( http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/ENTML2/MF917.PDF updated July 2002 ).  The US
National Park Service and other museums use it for preservation of
museum artifacts and have found it effective against all life stages of
target insects, although there are negative reactions with some
materials such as leather and adhesives
  ( http://www.cr.nps.gov/museum/publications/conserveogram/02-04.pdf ).


Insights anyone?

Logan
E TN