Creepy Crawlies!

j.r.anderson (j.r.anderson@mds.qmw.ac.uk)
Fri, 15 Nov 1996 21:11:10 GMT

OK, you're really going to love this one! I got phoned by a photographer,
who does mainly Black and White work and some Alt Photo work; he was in a
terrible state of distress, as he has found some rather large, fat,
catterpillers crawling on and around his print boxes; the boxes were
covered with a woolen rug - the rug, unsurprisingly, now has holes in it...

The questions I was asked were:

1: do the larvae of moths or butterflies eat paper?

2: he thinks he has got rid of them, but is fairly paranoid about residual
eggs, etc., and worries about a repeat problem - what (if anything) is safe
to put near the prints? eg Mothballs, etc.... Would anti-moth/bug compounds
damage the silver, platinum and cyanotype prints he makes?

I KNOW this sounds really daft, but I promise it isn't a joke - this really
happened! I saw one of the bugs today at his house, and it had an evil grin
on its face.....

Paper experts and others, I would appreciate some advice which I can pass
on to a photographer who, when I saw him, was close to tears as (he thinks)
he sees the possibility of 20 years work going down the tubes......

Jonathan Anderson