quarantining materials
I was asked how to do it tonight. I'm kind of sloppy about it since I live alone. I just toss new stuff on the end of the dining room table for a while. When I realize it has been there a while without showing signs of bugs I put it away. Does anyone have a more spouse friendly system to recommend?
I can think of few acts more selfish than refusing a vaccination.
rainbow,
Not sure this answers you exact question but this is what I've done and my stuff has stayed reasonably okay. Oh, I've been tying for about 55 years, gotten killed stuff over the years and have used this method. Not sure where I learned it but it seems to work.
Clean skin (bird or mammal) and get off all the fat you can. Wash in a bucket of medium warm water with some dish detergent (I use Dawn) and about a 1/4 cup of bleach added. Wash thoroughly. Rinse thoroughly, squeeze out gently so you don't damage hair or feathers. Let air dry by hanging on a line or putting skin side down on newspapers. If you do go the newspaper route, flip skin over to get it to dry on both sides. When completely dry, cut to fit into zip lock bags. I add 1 or 2 moth balls to a large bag. If I'm just plucking feathers, I do the same but instead of air drying I'll put them in a pillowcase and place it in the dryer on a warm setting. Then into a zip lock bag.
I'm sure there are other methods but this one has worked for the skins or feathers I've gotten.
And, just in case, I do not put a new supply of anything with my good stuff. I'll wait a few months to see if any critters show up.
Allan
Last edited by Allan; 04-23-2014 at 12:54 AM.
After the thorough cleaning Allan suggested, you can put the stuff in ziplock baggies and put them in the freezer for a week or two. To be completely sure they are bug free, let them sit out of the freezer for a few days and put them back in for another week or two.
Joe
A few winters back Tok Alaska had temps down as deep as -84F and sustained temps below -65 for several weeks.
They still have beetles and such in Tok...
Freezers are not the way to go, believe me! I have processed thousands of bird skins, mostly ducks for fly tying and sold them to several big fly shops for years. After skinning I wash in warm soapy water with just a capful of bleach... too much and you will "burn" the feathers.
After a couple thorough rinses I put them in a drum half filled with borax and dry sawdust 50:50 and rotate it slowly for a couple hours. The skins come out almost perfectly dry with all the feathers polished and looking really good. A 5-gallon bucket with a lid works well for the occasional bird...
The capful of bleach is plenty to kill all eggs, but I bag all birds after drying and toss a couple real moth balls in each bag and hold them for a week or so.
Every once in a while it is good to gently rewash your bird skins and I do the same tumbler trick with them.
art
Hey, I lived in Tok for two years in the mid 2000's... .Art is not talking about wind chill.Originally Posted by hap
Paradichlorobenzene. Full Stop.
To the simpleton, proof does not matter once emotion takes hold of an issue.
Anyone who's been on FAOL for a while knows who Ron Lucas is!!! I link his article from another site as I've had it marked since I first read it. No where do you see freezer mentioned in his article. I've been using Ron's cleaning method since I first read it and I haven't had any pests!!!! only thing I do different is a piece of flea collar in my Zip bags.
Ron is right material prep takes time, but it works and it's worth it.
http://www.hatchesmagazine.com/page/february2006/111
Moth balls and a section of flea collar with the material in a air tight plastic container (like Tupperware). Week to 10 days at room temps should de-bug in preparation for additional cleaning or adding to your kit.
Just another HappyHooker
Catching and Releasing Fisher-folk for 40+years
I was asking more about how you handle any new materials coming in rather than processing wild materials. After finding bugs in a chunk of elk hair from a well known fly shop (maybe picked up somewhere on the road as I bought it while traveling) once I never put anything right in with my tying supplies.
I can think of few acts more selfish than refusing a vaccination.
I'm not so sure about the "spouse friendly" part, but years ago I was an authorized (by the Department of Agriculture) importer of feathers in Pennsylvania. I think there were only 2 of us in Pennsylvania at the time.
As soon as the feathers cleared customs, and were shipped to me, I was required to quarantine them in a locked building that had to be physically separate from other inhabited buildings, and as I recall it had to be at least 50' distant.
Then the feathers had to be immediately placed in a diluted solution of formaldehyde, and soaked for a specified minimum length of time - I can't remember the specific dilution, or time for the soaking, but this is probably available somewhere on the internet. I also had periodic inspections from a veterinarian of the department of agriculture to make sure I followed the correct procedures. It was a pretty simple process, and and the feathers only needed to be air dried after soaking.
I believe formaldehyde may still be used today as a commercial disinfectant. However, with the advent of OSHA, etc. I suspect the procedures are more stringent today.
Here are a just couple of articles describing ways to rid your materials of bugs:
http://www.uky.edu/~agrdanny/flyfish...IOR TO STORAGE
http://www.eflytyer.com/materials/organize.html
Joe
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