Hi All I have questions about carpet beetle. I know they are very damaging to collection they can destroy a textile collect in a few days if there is an infestation. They can go unnoticed for long time because of their sizes. Here is the issue about six month ago our main exhibit hall had termites. Which has been an ongoing battle for over year now. I am not 100% sure because of how many times fumigated has happened before I started here. I know that they have fumigated at least three times since 2017. The last time being about six months ago. Which the workers in the exhibit hall thought that there were no more termites. I thank the Manger said that his staff began to fine wings about two-three months ago, and what they thought was termites. The pest guy kept telling him that they were nothing that no way there could still be termites and that pest that they were fining would not harm the items on display. I was asked by my Manger to go take a look at what they were fining to see if it was more termites. However, it was not termites it was larvae of an Dermistidae (Carpet beetle). In addition to this they are still finding termite wings. Which makes me think that they may still have termites. I had saw an email from pest list when someone had asked if dead pest attracts dermestid beetles, the answer was no but they do not help. The termites were of course in the walls and under display areas that were made of wood, and other areas. These areas they were unable to remove any dead termites, so any termites that were dead that were in the walls, under displays that were unable to move were left. An exhibit hall worker found three alive dermestid beetle larvae this morning and this afternoon they found five adult beetles all dead. Here are my questions:
1. Could the beetles be feeding on the dead termites and causing the wings to be present? 2. Is it possible that the termites are still there and that the fumigation did not work and the beetles are still feeding on some of the dead termites? 3. If the dermestid beetles are in the wall feeding on something how are we going to eliminate them? The area where the beetles are being found at the display does not move it is attached to the wall and it is wood with textiles display on top. It only has a piece of lather and feather that can be removed and CO2 or frozen. I real do not see what they could be fed on. Other than something behind the display and wall. However, there are other areas in the exhibit hall that are textiles that are at risk, large animal skins, cases of feather, leather clothes, and fur. 4. Has anyone fumigate and been successful in killing them? If you do fumigate does it leave dead bodies in walls which could cause an another infestation. I have found dermestid in other areas on our campus. In the Archives building the area was much smaller and easier to clean. We were able to freeze and CO2 everything. Any suggestions would be help. Thanks, Adrienne Dastgir Curator of Collections Chickasaw Culture Center Sulphur Oklahoma -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Museumpests" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to pestlist+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to pestlist@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/pestlist. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pestlist/EF495AD46099B047BCA57B34954AF93C09CC19E2%40HQADAPXC08.int.chickasaw.net. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
