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Is it absolutely necessary to freeze down to minus 30 degrees? Most domestic freezers only freeze to about minus 15-18 degrees. Is this likely to be cold enough to kill most museum pests? Laboratory Freezers go down to minus 40-50 degrees, but they are very expensive to buy and presumably expensive to run.

I am using plastic lunch boxes to store my stuff in. These have hinged lids, so they don't "ping" when they are opened. They appear to have a good seal, but in one of them I had hundreds of tiny mites recently. Perhaps these were already on the flies when I put them in the box. Fortunately, only three or four specimens are affected.

It's hard work keeping a collection in a good state. Amazingly, I once saw a collection of moths, that had bene kept in a shoe box for over twenty years and they were in perfect condition! I certainly would not try that myself.:D