I dredged up an old color roll-film negative today to re-scan--the original scan was made on a low-resolution Minolta Multi II and I want to print it bigger than the previous scan will allow.

After finding the original film in my archive, I made a horrifying discovery. The frame adjacent frame has a tiny hold in it. It really is small--maybe half a millimeter or even less--but it goes right through the film and through the plastic sleeve. There is no impression indicating a puncture wound, but there is a bit of debris visible using a 10x loupe.

It would appear to me that some very tiny insect has conducted an invasion. There was no evidence of insects in that container of negatives, but I notice another hole on another strip. The negatives are stored in the plastic sleeves the lab used when I had them process. Film is Fuji NPS 160, if it matters.

I think it's been eight years since I've laid eyes on these negatives.

Any idea what sort of insect causes that kind of damage, and what I can do about it that won't damage the negatives?

Rick "for whom this is a first in 35 years of handling negatives" Denney