{"id":2638,"date":"2021-10-01T08:30:35","date_gmt":"2021-10-01T08:30:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/?p=2638"},"modified":"2021-09-30T13:19:17","modified_gmt":"2021-09-30T13:19:17","slug":"the-things-that-bug-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/2021\/10\/01\/the-things-that-bug-us\/","title":{"rendered":"The things that bug us…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Everything made from organic material is edible to one pest or another (including insects and rodents), which makes our strongrooms a positive banquet hall.\u00a0 Therefore, it\u2019s important that we implement the principles of Integrated Pest Management (IPM), which essentially cover Prevention, Monitoring, Identification <\/strong>and Solutions.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Prevention<\/strong> is far easier for us than a museum or historic house where there are multiple points of entry for pests: doors, windows, chimneys, basements, and where access is freely open to allow visitors to wander through.\u00a0 In contrast, our strongrooms only have two points of entry, which are sealed double doors, with only small numbers of staff entering throughout the day, thus limiting access to any insects that may want to enter.\u00a0 Good housekeeping however is still imperative, which is why no food or drink is allowed and the strongrooms are regularly cleaned to prevent any additional enticements.<\/p>\n

Monitoring<\/strong> is carried out by placing sticky blunder traps around the building: in the strongrooms and the staff and public areas \u2013 you may have seen some if you have visited DHC.\u00a0 Insects predominantly travel along skirting boards as it\u2019s safer, so the traps are placed along walls.\u00a0 Unfortunately, they do trap indiscriminately, and we often catch spiders.\u00a0 Whilst many people are not fond of our eight-legged friends, they eat pest insects for us and so we\u2019re always a little sad to catch them.\u00a0 The traps are checked every quarter \u2013 a job we often give to willing work experience students!<\/p>\n

\"\"
A sticky pest trap, and Conservation Trainee Helen recording data<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Once caught, the insects need to be identified<\/strong>.\u00a0 Not all insects will eat archival material, so there are a number of specific ones that we keep an eye out for.\u00a0 These are some of them (not to scale!):<\/p>\n