Hi Karina, I have no expertise in pest management, but I did have an experience in a collection space that your situation reminds me of. We moved into a new building with a metal roof that was in part insulated with a cellulose based insolation. The move-in was during late fall and early winter. The next spring we observed a large number of plaster beetles within the collection space. These beetles apparently feed on mold growing on cellulose. We've speculated that the warming of the roof in the spring sunshine lowered the moisture content of the cellulose insulation layer making that less suitable for the plaster beetles so they went looking for greener (or at least moister) pastures elsewhere. To provide supporting evidence for their direction of movement we simply placed some strips of two-sided tape running down walls or away from doors to function as blunder traps. Within a few days it was evident that the movement was from the ceiling down. In essence then, this was a migration caused by a reduction in relative humidity within the pests feeding area. Perhaps in your situation a similar thing is happening. The pest population as indicated by traps in the collection space is increasing but that may mean that the pest population within their feeding space is decreasing. Hopefully in your case, the feeding space is not the collection itself but some other area or part of the building. I thought it was interesting that in our situation an increase is pest population as evidenced by more observed pests indicated a reduction in feeding by the pests. Our situation stabilized within a year - probably just after the insulation had completely dried. Best, Rob
________________________________ From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of Karina Wilhelm <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, May 28, 2026 12:55 PM To: [email protected] <[email protected]> Subject: RE: [PestList] Book lice in dry condition Hello all, Thank you everyone for your comments. And please keep them coming if anyone else has more info!! We’re thinking they’re coming in from a door we share with another department since there seems to be more in the traps at that door than in our interior door traps. I’m going to see if we can address what’s happening on the other side of the door. Maybe they’re attracting them somehow and then they come into our area. Their area is definitely less climate controlled. Does anyone have any books or websites that they would recommend to look up information about book lice? I tried to do some research but I’m not sure which things are credible. Thanks!! Karina Wilhelm Archivist SHESC Center for Archaeology and Society Repository Arizona State University email: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> From: [email protected] <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Jane Thompson-Webb Sent: Thursday, May 28, 2026 5:49 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [PestList] Book lice in dry condition Hi Karina, This may or may not be reassuring, but one needs thousands of booklice to cause damage. They are paper grazers - they feed on leaf litter in the wild. There may be a micro-fungus involved, but I could be making that up! A trap covered in booklice looks alarming, but I would really only worry if every trap in a space was covered in them. Improving housekeeping and keeping an eye on the environment will help. Booklice generally thrive in warm, damp conditions. If your spaces have those conditions then there may be a problem - changing the environment should resolve the issue. Best wishes jane ________________________________ From: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> on behalf of Karina Wilhelm <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> Sent: 27 May 2026 18:15 To: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> Subject: RE: [PestList] Book lice in dry condition You don't often get email from [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>. Learn why this is important<https://aka.ms/LearnAboutSenderIdentification> CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. I do not. I’m not usually the one that takes care of the traps but I’m checking to see if I can get a picture. I’m not sure what book lice usually eat so I’m not sure how much of a problem this is. I read somewhere that they don’t actually eat paper much. Not sure if that’s true though. But I’ll send a picture when I get one. Karina Wilhelm Archivist SHESC Center for Archaeology and Society Repository Arizona State University email: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> From: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> On Behalf Of Jane Thompson-Webb Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2026 3:49 AM To: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> Subject: Re: [PestList] Book lice in dry condition Hi Karina, Do you know what species of booklice you have? There are many species but only a few are pests. I'm not an expert on booklice, but it's quite possible that some of the other species thrive at lower humidities. People that have more knowledge than me will be able to give more information. Best wishes Jane ________________________________ From: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> on behalf of karina.wilhelm <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> Sent: 26 May 2026 17:53 To: MuseumPests <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> Subject: [PestList] Book lice in dry condition You don't often get email from [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>. Learn why this is important<https://aka.ms/LearnAboutSenderIdentification> CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. Hello, My institution, located in Tempe, Arizona, houses archaeological artifacts, ancestors (i.e. human remains), ethnographic collections, and archives. We are having an increasing number of book lice in our collections of artifacts, ancestors, and ethnographic items. There are some in the archives, but not as prevalent as the artifact collections. This is strange because the number of book lice seems to be inversely correlated to relative humidity. Our RH fluctuates some but during the uptick in book lice (mostly October-May for the last two years), our RH has been mostly within or below the 30-40% range. Any ideas why that would be? And more importantly, what treatments can be safely administered? Freezing all of our collections is just simply not possible. Thank you!! Karina Wilhelm Archivist -- This PestList and the MuseumPests.com web site are made possible due to the talent, intelligence, devotion and donations of hundreds of volunteers. Your donation to help this resource continue would be greatly appreciated. Please consider a donation donating at https://givebutter.com/MuseumPests To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> --- 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 [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pestlist/b4bf7276-0d24-448a-8cc7-62741c026971n%40googlegroups.com<https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pestlist/b4bf7276-0d24-448a-8cc7-62741c026971n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>. 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