Heather - When I give an IPPM lecture, I tell my audience a visitor drops 3 hairs and one fingernail per visit. WCM larvae will readily feed on the hair, but usually not the fingernails. Carpet beetles will feed on the fingernails. I know of nothing, which will damage collections, which will feed on skin cells. The public doesn't drop feathers. Generally I have found younger instars feeding on the debris in cracks between floor boards and bricks in a museum. Although I haven't seen it, I am assuming in a large public museum, there's enough protein debris for a WCM larva to complete its development and pupate utilizing the protein materials dropped by the public.
Thomas A. Parker, PhD President, Entomologist Pest Control Services, Inc. -----Original Message----- From: Heather Thomas <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Thu, Apr 29, 2010 12:21 pm Subject: [pestlist] Clothes Moth Eating Habits This is a message from the Pest Management Database List. To post to this list send it as an email to [email protected] To unsubscribe please look at the footer of this email. ----------------------------------------------------------- Dear all, Does anyone know how much food (hair. fur, skin cells, feather etc) a clothes moth larvae gets through from hatching to pupating? I'm working out how much edible 'debris' a human may drop whilst on the average museum visit and need to know how many moth larvae this will support. Thanks in advance Heather Thomas 3rd year BSc (Hons) Conservation & Restoration London Metropolitan University. ------------------------------------------------------------- To send an email to the list, send your msg to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this list send an email to [email protected] and in the body put: "unsubscribe pestlist" Any problems email [email protected]
