What's Eating Auckland Museum?

Not all insects are harmful to our collections. The ‘Famous Five’ are the pests which we are most concerned about as they can cause the most damage to our objects. These are clothes moths, silverfish, borer beetles, dermestid beetles and rodents.

You'll know clothes moths as the reason you have holes in your woolly jumpers and they are likewise one of the biggest problems in museums across the world. They feed on feathers, wool, hair, fur and animal protein.

The insect group that silverfish belong to has been around for more than 400 million years. They enjoy cool, moist conditions and feed on starch from paper, so understandably have a particular fondness for our Documentary Heritage collections!

Borer beetles, specifically the common furniture beetle, bore into wood when they are in the larval stage. This creates holes and tunnels which weaken the wood - you might have seen the damage from borer beetles in the floorboards of old homes.

_{Image: Binding of a book damanged by silverfish}

To get on top of pests, you must think like a pest! Insects thrive in warm, humid conditions and love food, so it is important that we make the Museum as unattractive as we can to pests so we don’t invite them in. To do this, we ensure all our windows are sealed.

We also reduce the temperature and humidity so it is too cool and dry for many of the most dangerous pests to survive. The Museum is also kept clean and dust free, and we don’t allow eating and drinking in our galleries, store rooms, and many office spaces.

This approach to dealing with pests is called Integrated Pest Management (IPM). IPM is a widely used approach in museums throughout the world. It seeks to understand what pests are attracted to, their habits and life cycles.

_{Image: Collection Manager Georgia Brockhurst inspecting an insect sticky trap from a collection store}