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If identification is correct, could there be a stored cache of food by rodents and that's what's infested? > Hello all, > > My name is Ryan Jones, and I am the IPM Specialist for the Colonial > Williamsburg Foundation in Williamsburg, VA. > > We have recently encountered a problem in one of our museums that we would > like to get your input on. > > Approximately two months ago, we had a section of wood flooring torn out > near one of the galleries in the DeWitt Wallace Art Museum. Around that > time, we began to see large numbers of small, unidentified red beetles > that were roughly 1/8 inch long in an office that was 150-200 feet away > from the work-site. We sent these beetles off to a nearby university to be > identified, and, to our surprise, the specimens were identified as Square > Necked Grain Beetles. As you know, Square Necked Grain Beetles are a > stored product pest that would likely be right at home inside a container > of corn meal, flour, or other food product. We have been puzzled, however, > about how they could live in such large numbers in an art museum. > > I have researched these insects online and have found no evidence that > they would be able to survive in a subfloor or wall void without a food > substance to sustain them. We have inspected the surrounding workshops > and mechanical rooms, break room, and other areas that might play host to > an infestation of these insects, but have had no luck finding a source. > The beetles continue to be found in some of our textile displays, on the > wood floor beside the baseboards in sporadic areas throughout the museum, > in hallways adjacent to the gallery, and in large numbers in the office > where they were originally spotted. > > What are your thoughts on how we can get rid of these pests? > > Can Square Necked Grain Beetles thrive in an art gallery, or is there a > possibility that the insect was misidentified? > > Is it possible that these beetles can invade from outside? (One of the > common denominators seems to be that the sightings occur in close > proximity to an exterior wall.) > > I am prepared to take pictures of the insects or send samples if need be > to clarify what we are dealing with. I have reviewed pictures of this > beetle online and the specimens look exactly like the ones we are seeing. > > Any help with this would be greatly appreciated. > > Thanks, > > Ryan Jones > > Integrated Pest Management > Specialist > > [cid:image003.jpg@01CB6A20.D504A420] > P.O. Box 1776 > Williamsburg, VA 23187 > > (757) 220-7080 > rjo...@cwf.org<mailto:rjo...@cwf.org> > > -- Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail Louis N. Sorkin, B.C.E. Entomology Section Division of Invertebrate Zoology American Museum of Natural History Central Park West at 79th Street New York, NY 10024-5192 phone: 212-769-5613 fax: 212-769-5277 email: sor...@amnh.org The New York Entomological Society, Inc. email: n...@amnh.org web: www.nyentsoc.org Online journal from 2001 forward www.BioOne.org ------------------------------------------------------------- To send an email to the list, send your msg to pestl...@museumpests.com To unsubscribe from this list send an email to imail...@museumpests.net and in the body put: "unsubscribe pestlist" Any problems email l...@zaks.com
