QUESTION:

A different question for you. For the last 6 months I have been building a collection of antique pest control memorabilia, advertisements, application devices, books, etc. Unfortunately, the only reliable sites I have come by are craigslist & ebay. The pickings on those sites are pretty bare bones. I was wondering if you knew of any place that I could visit (web or in person) to help expand my antique collection. The end hope is to donate an "evolution of pest control" exhibit at a local museum that is showing interest in the endeavor.

ANSWER:

Wow. I really don't have any great ideas for you. I collect butterflies and moths but looking for them is a much easier thing to do. Finding old memorabilia of any industry may just be one of those stumble-upon-it opportunities. Certainly you could advertise your interest in this, and on PestWeb we do offer the free resource of the Classified Ads. Under the tab "Industry Information" you will find Classified Ads, and if you select this you can "Add" your own advertisement for this sort of thing, and it can be left in place for just about as long as you want it to be. These ads may be read by PMPs throughout North America, and they may just be willing to part with some old equipment or trade magazines that have been lingering in their office or warehouse.

Other than this it's probably very much like the show "American Pickers" on TV, where you simply find people who have old barns and sheds full of junk they either gathered themselves or owned and neve threw away. Antique stores probably are going to cater more to trendy things, but you still never know what you may find - old rodent traps, old sprayers or dusters, etc. You could check used book stores to see if any of them carry old magazines or very old reference books on pests. You might also call the NPMA (National Pest Management Assoc.) in Virginia and tell them what your goal is. Since you want to donate this to a worthy museum the NPMA folks could have some ideas as well.

Locally you could call on old farm homes where barns tend to accumulate odds and ends from times past. Even your own customers are going to have some interesting things tucked away in storage sheds and garages. I have had my own customers show me very old pest control equipment that they found under homes or forgotten in storage, and with the owner's permission were able to take it for themselves. Even advertise locally in your town's newspaper - this can be fairly inexpensive and you never know what will show up. Contact your local Dept of Agriculture, whose field inspectors could very well turn you on to some leads that they have seen as they have called on farms or had very old pesticide containers turned into them on toxic cleanup days.

I'll go ahead and post this to show on PestWeb and you never know who may read it and want to cooperate with you on this. Anyone who thinks they have some items this person would like can contact our [email protected] and we can forward the contact information.

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