Insect pest management programmes and results from their application in two large museum collections in Berlin and Vienna

Abstract

Since the 1980s the concept of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) has been applied in museums, historic houses and archives to reduce the application of pesticides and damage to historic objects. Insect pests such as the webbing clothes moth (Tineola bisselliella), drugstore beetle (Stegobium paniceum), different Attagenus and Anthrenus species or the common furniture beetle (Anobium punctatum) have been known as museum pests for a long time, having caused major damage to the collections of natural or cultural history. The monitoring (regular inspection) with sticky blunder and pheromone traps plays a major role in IPM to detect an infestation and to locate damaged objects. The results of a monitoring in 2010 in ten museums in Berlin of the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz and the Museum of Ethnology, Vienna, the Austrian Theatre Museum and six collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Vienna, are presented. The most common pests found in both cities were webbing clothes moths (T. bisselliella), the drugstore beetle (S. paniceum), the varied carpet beetle (Anthrenus (Nathrenus) verbasci) and silverfish (Lepisma saccharina). The khapra beetle (Trogoderma angustum) and the brown carpet beetle (Attagenus smirnovi), both common pests in homes and museums in Berlin, were not yet found in Vienna. A. smirnovi may be replaced in Vienna by the ecologically similar species, the black carpet beetle (Attagenus unicolor). Four wood destroying pests were found in the study, Nicobium castaneum in Berlin and the common furniture beetle (A. punctatum), Hexarthrum exiguum and the powderpost beetle (Lyctus brunneus) in Vienna. The distribution of these species, other insect pests and the success of the IPM programs are discussed.