Good Afternoon Ariana, First of all – expect to have incidental insects coming in. These incidentals are not museum pests that cause direct damage to your collection. For example the spider (yes it is a very small spider) is an incidental – and, as a hunter will be targeting other insects for dinner. Some of these insects may have come in in the soil. The incidentals are primarily a problem because they might become a food source for the pests – the ones that can cause damage to other collections. The “silverfish” looks kind of strange – I will be interested in seeing what others think of it.
I have had some experience with growing plants in exhibition halls – both short term and long term. When I was at a museum that grew plants the galleries we had serious problems with living plant pests and insects. The first thing we did was make sure that no insects (or mold) came in by heating the soil. We heated it in a regular oven to kill off any insect that might be living in the soil, at about 150 –200 deg. F. We kept constant (daily or weekly) observation on the plants as they grew – watching for plant pests (red spider mites, etc. depending on what the plant was). Kept the plants well fed and watered so as not to stress them out. Sick plants will attract more bugs. We also monitored around the plants. If plants got sick, we immediately removed them. We also used insecticidal soap as a deterrent. New plants were closely examined prior to planting. Better yet, grow from seed. Here is a question for you. Did you monitor the gallery prior to growing the plants? If so, that would tell you if you had a population of insects (and spiders) living in the gallery. Good luck! Gretchen Gretchen Anderson Conservator Carnegie Museum of Natural Hisotry anders...@carnegiemnh.org From: pestlist@googlegroups.com <pestlist@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Ariana Webber Sent: Friday, October 8, 2021 2:00 PM To: pestlist@googlegroups.com Subject: [PestList] FW: PEST ID: growing plants in the gallery Hi All, Some of you may remember that our museum is working with an artist who incorporates plants into their sculptures. So, we are embarking on growing plants in our gallery for the next few months. Thank you all so much for all of your great feedback on how we can approach IPM for this show. We have brought the plants in from the green house for a week long quarantine period prior to installation. We have them on the floor with grow lights and tons of pest traps. I have sprayed them with insecticide soap and for the most part they are growing in a soilless potting mix – with a bit of organic soil from the green house here and there. We are planning to spray with diatomaceous earth as well. We have noticed a few pests in the short time the plants have been here. Mostly just ants, but there were a few I was hoping to get some help identifying. See the attached pictures. There is something that looks like a gnat, a silverfish looking one, and a small spiderlike one. Should I be more concerned about any of these? I have divided the quarantine area into quadrants and am keeping a pest log of what we find where. Planning to continue using the insecticide soap and diatomaceous earth. Right now during the week long quarantine period I am checking the traps every day. During the run of the show I am having our VS staff place the traps down at night (same traps near the same plant groups). How often should I be checking them? Thanks so much for your help! Best, Ariana -- Ariana M. Webber (she/her) Registrar for Exhibitions MIT List Visual Arts Center 20 Ames Street, Building E15-109 Cambridge, MA 02139 USA Office:617-253-6633 Mobile:503-991-2253 http://listart.mit.edu/ -- 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<mailto:pestlist+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com>. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pestlist/8ACEAF7F-CE4E-469E-9C71-9CFD81898701%40mit.edu<https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=https%3a%2f%2fgroups.google.com%2fd%2fmsgid%2fpestlist%2f8ACEAF7F-CE4E-469E-9C71-9CFD81898701%2540mit.edu%3futm_medium%3demail%26utm_source%3dfooter&c=E,1,Zf06jGdu0WRGL_C5wNc63bEH6TvAlqVoHOTDWaLmILkIGnPsmItq9VSNl78IqG9Ca1hAaNe51pUgaGxIoq5BSNvpyslcbtF2_kVDSZbAMi5WuP6rsQWb1fg,&typo=1>. The information contained in this message and/or attachments is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged material. Any review, retransmission, dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon, this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited. If you received this in error, please contact the sender and delete the material from any system and destroy any copies. Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender. -- 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 view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pestlist/DM6PR02MB6906DB9EFD76B563C53A2344BCB29%40DM6PR02MB6906.namprd02.prod.outlook.com.
