Have you considered switching to quarterly monitoring? So checking traps once every three months, which is standard for general IPM. Monthly is only usually necessary when there is an active infestation you are tracking.
You might continue monthly monitoring, capturing data every month but only analysing and reporting every three months. You could potentially have quarterly monitoring across the whole estate and use selective monthly monitoring just in problem areas when necessary. Consider what extra information you are really getting from monthly checks. I use monthly monitoring to answer specific questions. I'm currently using monthly monitoring to track an active *Tineola bisselliella* infestation across a 6-floor building. Adult Tineola moths live for about a month and we are actively tweaking treatments, which makes monthly moth counts useful. Other insect pests in this building don't need monthly counting and so I only ID and count them every three months. It takes me 6 hours on site to visit / change all the traps plus 1-2 days every three months with a microscope and a laptop to produce a quarterly report (about a day for ID and a day to write the report). I have just done an end of year report which took me about a week, a few hours at a time, because it requires lots of focus and thinking time. I am very much looking forward to switching to quarterly monitoring once we have the infestation under control and have some year-on-year comparative data to prove it. Another thing to consider is to change the number of traps used to better meet the amount of time you have available to check them. I would not deploy more traps than I have the resources/budget to check, ID and report on. One disadvantage of only checking quarterly is the higher risk that the traps will be moved, lost or squashed but there are other ways to deal with those issues than just more frequent checks. I have previously trained "IPM Champions" to collect and swap out traps which I then did the ID and analysis for. IPM Champions can also be trained to do basic identification, being careful to ensure they know when to say that they aren't sure and pass those on to you for checking. Using IPM Champions spreads the load across lots of people, each of whom has responsibility for the traps in a fixed geographic area. Eg. one per building. Helen Smith ACR Independent Preventive Conservator and IPM specialist https://www.helensmith-acr.co.uk/ On Fri, 1 Aug 2025 at 16:33, Adrienne Dastgir < [email protected]> wrote: > Hi, everyone. > > I know this question was asked about a month ago. However, I cannot find > the emails on this subject. I through I saved them because they had > great information that I might need for later. Well, later is now. My > manager asked me for a suggestion on ways to decrease time on IPM. Make > things more streamlined. We check the pests traps once a > month; however, it takes 2-3 days to complete the process. We have > almost 200 traps spread out over three buildings. Coming up with trends, > areas of concern, etc. is done by a human (me). I have one technician > who is still learning the pests. He also found the Excel file very long > and confusing. He did suggest using ChatGPT. > > Any suggestions that are low-cost or user-friendly? > > > > > > *Yakkookay chimanhili ,* > > > > *Adrienne Dastgir* > > *Curator of Collections* > > Work: (580) 622-7156 Ex. 65078 > > Work Cell: (580) 618-8339 > > Personal Cell (405) 513-1822 > > Email: [email protected] > > Chickasaw Cultural Center > > 867 Charles Cooper Memorial Drive > > Sulphur, OK 73086 > > [image: CCC logo] > > *“The world can be divided into the people who like to look under the rock > and the people who don’t. I’ve always said, since birth, ‘Let’s look under > the rock” –Unknown* > > > > *CHIKASHSHANOMPA’ILANOMPOLI’!* > > *Let’s speak Chickasaw!* > > > > > > > > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MuseumPests" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pestlist/PH0PR09MB8330F8E5F8EA12638D5794F18B26A%40PH0PR09MB8330.namprd09.prod.outlook.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pestlist/PH0PR09MB8330F8E5F8EA12638D5794F18B26A%40PH0PR09MB8330.namprd09.prod.outlook.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MuseumPests" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pestlist/CAHTtWj-qU-3RjQ6KU-DzoD-0u2q7QBYxmALnphpKANTvrc-ULA%40mail.gmail.com.
