IPM AND THE CASE OF

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IPM AND THE CASE OF WHAT DUN IT

• James Bryant, Curator of Natural History
• Museum Department, City of Riverside, CA
• Patrick Kelley, General Manager
• Insects Limited, Inc.
• Michael Schuetz, Collections Technician
• Historic New England, Collections Conservation
  Center

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IPM and the Case of"What Dun It?"

• Session Goals
• conceptual introduction to Integrated Pest
  Management (IPM)
• apply what you already know about IPM to a
  mystery scenario
• start an inventory of what you may want or need
  to know about IPM

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IPM and the Case of"What Dun It?"

• Session Outline
• Introductions and summary description of
  Integrated Pest Management
• Brief intro to the biology and ecology of pest
  species
• General introduction to pest monitoring and
  mitigation measures
• Distribution of mystery scenarios Moderator
  and reporter identified for each group

• Groups go through their scenarios, noting their
  deductions at each stage, and drawing a
  conclusion
• Reporters review each scenario and describe their
  group's findings and conclusions
• General question and comment period
• Conclusion

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WHAT ARE PESTS?

• VERTEBRATES - mice, rats, bats, birds, and
  squirrels.
• INSECTS OTHER INVERTEBRATES - some merely a
  nuisance, but may also be agents of destruction
  insects are most common and often most difficult
  pests with which to deal.
• MOLD FUNGI - not pests in the usual sense, but
  commonly grouped with pests because they are
  often treated chemically and conditions allowing
  mold/fungi to form can also be attractive to
  other pests.

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WHICH INSECTS ARE PESTS?

• PROTEIN FEEDERS (fur, feathers, hide products,
  wool, silk, bone, etc.)
• Carpet Beetles
• Hide Leather Beetles,
• Odd Beetles
• Case-making Webbing Clothes Moths

Furniture Carpet Beetle, larva and adult
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WHICH INSECTS ARE PESTS?

• GENERAL FEEDERS (mold, starch, cellulose,
  grains)
• Drugstore Beetles
• Cigarette Beetles
• Booklice
• Silverfish Firebrats
• Cockroaches

Actual size 1/32 to 3/16 inch long
Actual size 1/3 to 3/4 inch long
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WHICH INSECTS ARE PESTS?

• WOOD FEEDERS
• Furniture Beetles
• Powder-post Beetles
• Deathwatch Beetles
• Carpenter Ants
• Termites

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WHY ARE THEY HERE?

• Like humans, pests need food, water,
  shelter. Collections storage and historic houses
  may easily provide for one - or all -of these
  needs
• Climate controlled, stable environment
• Warmth during cold seasons
• Higher humidity during dry seasons
• Quiet, cluttered spaces left undisturbed for
  long periods
• Stored quantities of organic material
• Areas covered by fine, organic dirt dust
• With things that good, why leave?

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Integrated Pest Management (IPM) an
ecosystems approach to pest control that seeks
to protect museum staff and visiting public from
exposure to toxic chemicals. IPM is preventative
conservation, i.e. it tries to prevent the
conditions in which pests thrive from occurring
in museum settings.
The hard work part No one person on a museum
staff can be responsible for carrying out all IPM
methods. Everyone has a role to play.
European House Cricket Acheta domestica
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IPM Program Components

• Good house-keeping producing an environment
  inhospitable to pests
• Integrity of building (excluding pests)
• Maintenance (general upkeep of building)

• Habitat modification - depriving pests of their
  optimal environment

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IPM Program Components

• Isolation - assessment of incoming materials for
  pest contamination
• Monitoring Inspection regular checking for
  pests in areas of active/ potential infestation

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IPM Program Components

• Identification Documentation - pest activity
  records What Dun It?
• Treatment action - pest control procedures
  specific to a pest species, site and/or artifact

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IPM Program Components

• Evaluation Thresholds - determination program
  effectiveness and acceptable levels of pest
  infestation
• Education - informing staff and the public of
  methods and benefits of IPM

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But FirstCan You Tell What Dun It?

• Each table has a pest management case to solve
  the stories you will read are true, only the
  names have been eliminated to protect the
  innocent.
• The Moderator for each table will lead the group
  through the choices presented in each case, and
  the Reporter will record those choices.

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The Case of the Broken Bat

• Scene 1 You arrive early for your meeting with
  the mammalogy collections manager. The door from
  the food service hall into the collections
  storage room is left open. Closing the door
  behind you, you notice that a good deal of sound
  can be heard coming in from the food hall through
  the space under the door. Whipping out your PDA,
  you make a note to

• 1) Tell the director its ridiculous to have
  collections storage located next to the food hall
• 2) Place a work order with building services to
  have a tight-fitting sweep attached to the bottom
  of the door
• 3) Place an order with central stores to have an
  Out to Lunch sign purchased for the collection
  managers door

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The Case of the Broken Bat

• Scene 2 Entering the mammalogy storage work
  area, you approach the collection managers desk.
  It seems the collections manager has not gone out
  to lunch indeed, a half-eaten sandwich lies atop
  papers on the desk, and steam rises from a
  freshly poured cup of java. A small bird flutters
  away through the open window above the desk.
  Continuing your notes, you

• 1) Jot down a memo to the Director to have all
  work spaces removed from collections storage
  areas
• 2) Enter a reminder to discuss a new policy
  regarding consuming food at work spaces
• 3) Place an order with building services to have
  a fine mesh screen installed in the window over
  the collections managers desk

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The Case of the Broken Bat

• Scene 3 Where could the collections manager have
  disappeared to? Turning away from the desk, you
  walk down the closest range of storage cabinets.
  You soon come to an open cabinet with a
  protruding drawer. In the drawer rests a tray
  with a specimen that may have once been a bat
  the wings of the bat are now a fine mesh of
  holes. At this point, it looks like

• 1) The collections manager, handling a request
  that came in during lunch, discovered a specimen
  that could have been destroyed by pest
  infestation
• 2) The last person to use the cabinet must have
  left the door and drawer open
• 3) In despair upon discovering the infestation,
  the collections manager leapt out the window
• 4) All of the above

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The Case of the Broken Bat

• Scene 4 Your attention turns to the broken
  bat. You notice a fine brown powder scattered on
  the floor of the tray beneath the specimen.
  Within the powder you find a small number of what
  appear to be the cast-off husks of some tiny
  creature, less than 1/8 inch long. Examining
  these husks you note the following features

• A light tan color
• A many-segmented structure, resembling
  accordion pleats
• Numerous, curving bristles surrounding each
  segment
• WHAT DUN IT?

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The Case of the Devoured Duck

• Scene 1 Late on Monday afternoon, you enter the
  textile storage room to pull objects for a
  traveling exhibit. As you reach for a box stuffed
  deep into a shelf, you accidentally step onto
  something on the floor that sticks to your foot.
  You soon realize you have stepped into one of
  those annoying sticky traps that your predecessor
  placed throughout the room. Pulling it from your
  foot, you see what appear to be bugs stuck in
  the glue next to your shoes tread mark. Feeling
  pressured from your new job you should

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The Case of the Devoured Duck
You Should

• 1) Gently replace the smashed glue trap and hope
  that no one can identify you from your shoe
  treads.
• 2) Salvage what you can from the damaged trap and
  take it to someone that may be able to identify
  the bugs.
• 3) Make a mental note to have housekeeping
  perform a sweep of textile storage to pick up
  these disgusting things.

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The Case of the Devoured Duck

• Scene 2 When you look up from your feet, you
  realize that there are 3 or 4 insects sitting
  stationary on the wall only a few feet from the
  shelf that you were working in. Not even sure if
  they are alive you reach for one. Before you can
  touch it, it hops away from your hand, flies for
  a short distance and quickly runs into a shadowed
  area. Not being one who cares much for creepy
  crawlers you brace yourself and.

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The Case of the Devoured Duck

• Not being one who cares much for creepy crawlers
  you brace yourself and.

• 1) Say to yourself, this is a bad ending of a bad
  day, Im going home.
• 2) Immediately start to scratch vigorously on
  areas of your upper torso.
• 3) Find a glass jar with a screw lid that used to
  hold sewing pins and carefully trap one of the
  buggers against the wall and close the lid over
  it.
• 4) Both 2 3

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The Case of the Devoured Duck

• Scene 3 Looking closely at the insect in the
  jar, you determine that it looks more like a moth
  than it does a beetle or a fly. It is a solid
  cream color and the tips of the wings are
  feathered kinda like Farrah Fawcetts hair. It is
  a little more than a ¼ in long. Your mind wanders
  back to the sticky trap and the thought occurs to
  you

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The Case of the Devoured Duck

• Your mind wanders back to the sticky trap and the
  thought occurs to you

• 1) Monitoring for insects in sticky traps might
  just work.
• 2) I really need to scrape that glue off of my
  shoe before I go out tonight.
• 3) Perhaps the bug in the jar is the same as the
  ones in the traps.
• 4) Both 1 3

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The Case of the Devoured Duck

• Scene 4 You retrieve the objects you came for in
  the first place, in particular a box labeled
  duck feather boa. As you open the box, the
  smell of your grandmothers attic hits you in the
  face and momentarily kicks in a memory of
  fighting with your brother when you were 10 years
  old. A spider-webby material is sticking to the
  inside of the box and covering a portion of the
  boa. Much of the boa is missing or badly damaged.
  You note the following other clues

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The Case of the Devoured Duck

• Small skinny white worms with brown heads are
  crawling on the inside of the box.
• A few of the bugs fly out of the box right past
  your face as you pick up the boa to examine.
• Dirty oblong tubes a little larger than the worms
  are sticking to the remnants of the feathers.
  These tubes are covered with pepper-like material
  the same color as the feathers.
• WHAT DUN IT?

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The Case of the Holy Table

• Scene 1 On Friday evening you are making the
  closing rounds through your institutions most
  popular historic house, located on the water in
  Gloucester, Mass. (You are hurrying to meet your
  co-workers for a much-needed after-work beer.) In
  one of the rooms, known as the Pine Kitchen,
  you notice what looks like a pile of dust on
  the floor alongside a table, a 17th century piece
  made of oak. Taking a closer look, it is indeed a
  pile of dust, and looks a lot like fresh sawdust.
  Being tired, late, and thirsty you decide to

• 1) Brush the dust underneath the hooked rug lying
  next to the table and call it a day.
• 2) Get angry and decide to chew out your staff
  for doing a poor job on housekeeping.
• 3) Take a closer look and write yourself a note
  to further inspect the situation when you come in
  on Monday morning.
• 4) Make sure to tell the contractors, who are
  working on the house, to not track their dust
  inside.

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The Case of the Holy Table

• Scene 2 Early Monday morning you remember to
  look at the Pine Kitchen table again. Getting
  down on your hands and knees, you look at the
  dust on the floor and notice a number of very
  small, round holes in the table leg. Further
  along the leg, you see more holes and what look
  like tunnels running along the wood grain
  these tunnels are packed with more dust. You rub
  the dust between your fingers, noting its
  slightly gritty texture. Looking at the other
  table legs you see more holes, tunnels, and dust.
  You let out a sigh and think to yourself.

• 1) I hate Mondays and I really need another
  beer.
• 2) Get a magnifying glass and closely inspect
  the holes and tunnels.
• 3) Its just as well I didnt really like this
  table anyway.
• 4) Take some reference photos, vacuum all of the
  dust, and keep an eye on the holes.
• 5) Plug the holes and tunnels with wood filler-
  preferably one that matches the color of the
  oak.

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The Case of the Holy Table

• I should go to www.museumpests.net/
• and sign up on the pestlist_at_museumpests.net
  mailing list and post my questions.

• Scene 3 You tell the Collections Manager about
  the table and your findings. He says, Hmmm. Last
  year, rafters in our house had something like
  that. My cousin looked at it and told me that
  some kind of worm was eating the wood, that the
  sawdust is the worms fecal waste. Kind of gross,
  eh?
• Scratching your head, you think.

• 1) Oh, no! I just touched worm fecal waste!!
• 2) If I used a stethoscope and listened to
  the table, I might hear chewing, munching or
  tapping sounds.
• 3) Coating the table with clear urethane would
  seal off the worm activity. (The Collection
  Managers bug expert said it got rid of the
  worms in the rafters!)
• 4) Spray the table with Heavy Duty Insect
  Killer, making sure to spray inside all the
  holes and tunnels.

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The Case of the Holy Table

• Scene 4 You come back three days later and see
  what looks like more piles of sawdust on the
  floor. You get back down on your hands and knees,
  you peer into the holes and you see a bug crawl
  out of a hole!
• This critter

• Is about 3/8 long, cylindrical body, with
  parallel rows of pits on its wing covers.
• Is medium-brownish in color.
• Has what looks like a dome-like shell for a
  head.
• WHAT DUN IT?

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• Figuring out What Dun It is the first (and
  often the most valuable) step in using an IPM
  program strategy to solve complex pest issues.