Elisabeth,
>From the photos of the beetles and damage, they look like furniture beetle to >me (anobium punctatum). The larvae will have been living in the wood, >tunnelling undetected (sometimes for years) and the adults are only now >emerging, perhaps triggered by the temperature change as the wood came into >your museum or the arrival of summer weather. However, if your gallery is >fairly stable with a moderate relative humidity (under 50% RH) then they will >probably not survive to lay eggs anywhere else, and in the UK we usually do >not find infestations surviving in centrally heated buildings because the RH >goes quite low over the winter. However, if your building is humid most of >the year or damp in some areas, you should be watching your pest traps very >closely in the spring from now on. You will not be able to tell if the larvae >are living in the wood and will only know you have a problem when the adults >emerge. These beetles are a wood boring species and I believe they are unlikely to attack historic natural history collections. However, we recently had a problem with new taxidermy birds mounted on fresh wooden mounts (tree branches), where the beetles were living in the mounts and emerged when the specimens came into the museum. Fortunately, we had quarantined these new acquisitions, so they did not infest any other collections. Also, we usually freeze props and display materials that might pose a risk to our collections to prevent the introduction of pests into our galleries or stores. A fact sheet on this pest can be found here: http://www.collectionslink.org.uk/index.cfm?ct=assets.assetDisplay/title/Pest%20Fact%20sheet%20No%202%20Furniture%20beetle%2FWoodworm/assetId/377 There are fact sheets on other major museum pests on this website as well as other information you may find helpful. Best of luck, Julie Phippard Senior Preventive Conservator Conservation & Scientific Research The British Museum Great Russell Street London WC1B 3DG 02073238278 From: pestlist-ow...@museumpests.net [mailto:pestlist-ow...@museumpests.net] On Behalf Of E. Abgottspon Sent: 06 July 2010 09:40 To: pestlist@museumpests.net Subject: [pestlist] WG: bugs in the museum... Dear members of the pestlist I'm the "curator" of a little a Museum in Switzerland, but not knowing much about pests. It would be great if you can help me concerning a bug-problem. At the moment, we show an exhibition about different "phenomenas" in the near nature environment of the museum (Kuesnacht, Switzerland). As the subject is "nature", our designers decided to use "nature materials" and I agreed to do so. Now, I wouldn't do it anymore... Because: we now have bugs in the exhibition-room. A biologist told me that they must be Anthrenus, probably Anthrenus verbasci. The grubs/worms must be in the wood we used and the bugs are lying near the window, most of them dead. As the removing of the wood would probably be the end of the exhibition (it should actually not end before october...), I would like to know the risks and the problems and what else I could do instead of removing the wood... Fortunately we don't have our collection/museum-objects in this room except some « dead birds ». And it wouldn't be a problem, if the worms will stay in the wood and eat this wood, in which they've come into the museum. Do the worms eat only the bark of the wood - will it be a big problem for the room itself (wooden ceiling...), because now the bugs are lying their eggs everywhere? And will they destroy the objects of our next exhibition in this room? What are they eating actually? What do I have to do concerning the room...? I send you a few pictures - it would be great, if you could help me or tell me who I could/should ask. A big « thankyou » in advance and please excuse my English... Best regards Elisabeth Abgottspon (grundsätzlich am Dienstag, Mittwoch und Donnerstag im Ortsmuseum) Öffnungszeiten des Museums: Mittwoch, Samstag und Sonntag von 14 Uhr bis 17 Uhr. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Elisabeth Abgottspon Kuratorin/Museumsleiterin Ortsmuseum Kuesnacht Tobelweg 1 8700 Küsnacht Tel. 0041 44 910 59 70 FINAL WEEKS – BOOK NOW Fra Angelico to Leonardo: Italian Renaissance drawings Until 25 July 2010 TICKETS +44 (0)20 7323 8181 www.britishmuseum.org Follow the British Museum on Facebook and Twitter at www.facebook.com/britishmuseum www.twitter.com/britishmuseum
