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Hi everyone, I'm Dawn Roberts, senior director of collections, and welcome to Curious By Nature.
This week, we're celebrating Founders Week,
which is the anniversary of the founding of our institution, the Chicago Academy of Sciences.
The Academy was founded in 1857 and this year marks our 164th anniversary
of studying the region's ecology and engaging our community about science and natural history.
This year, we're exploring entomology, the study of insects.
Now, following this theme, I'm going to talk about insects we don't want to see in our collection.
One of the main responsibilities for staff charged with oversight of a collection
is preservation of the items in the collection.
There are many things that can damage collections objects such as light, dust and pollutants,
physical damage, or big fluctuations in temperature and humidity.
In the collections profession, we call these agents of deterioration.
A natural history collection contains many types of specimens.
There are birds, mammals, plants and insects, shells, and a host of others.
All of these consist of different types of materials,
feathers, fur, bone and horn, leaves and flowers, eggshells and mollusks,
there's parchment and other things made from animal skin, paper and glue bindings,
historic photographs with gelatin layers in the emulsion.
Essentially, lots of different forms of protein.
All of this amounts to a smorgasbord for hungry insects.
First, let's take a look at some of the insect pests that affect natural history collections and the damage they can cause.
Dermestids are a group of beetles that target just about anything in a natural history collection.
There are many species of beetles in the Dermestidae family
and they are fairly ubiquitous outdoors.
In nature, they help recycle dead material back into the ecosystem.
In fact, they are so good at this they are often utilized in the process of cleaning skeletal specimens
because they're fantastic at cleaning all the little bits of fleshy material and fats from bones.
However, they are not a welcome presence amongst materials you're trying to preserve.
Speaking of skeletal specimens, let's start with this snake skeleton.
It's easy to see the skeleton, and then there's all this extra debris
between the ribs and the vertebrae -- that is called frass.
It's basically insect poop and here it's mixed with larval casings and detritus
left behind by the dermestid larvae as they eat the fleshy bits from the bones
that weren't properly cleaned off.
Insects love to eat dried insects.
From my experience, it seems to be one of their favorites.
An insect's exoskeleton is made up of proteins and chitin which are highly nutritious for a hungry insect.
Take a look at this elephant beetle specimen eaten by dermestids.
Now these are specimens that I keep in this state specifically for educational purposes,
so they won't be cleaned any further.
You can see all the holes in the beetle's body caused by dermestid larvae
as they chewed through the specimen.
There are still casings inside, the wings and horn even became detached.
Clothing moths are another big concern for collections with textiles and skins
and this is definitely one that can impact people's personal items at home.
This anorak was attacked by clothing moths a long time ago and you can see all the holes left behind.
This damage really can't be repaired, so we clean the items and stabilize them to prevent any further damage.
Paper-based collections, such as archives and libraries, can be affected by insect pests, too.
For these types of collections, we watch out for silverfish which like a more humid environment,
psocids or book lice, and even some beetles and cockroaches.
Most of the pests encountered in paper collections
are targeting the adhesives in the book bindings or even the fabric and leather covers.
Here is an example of paper eaten by insect pests.
So how do museums prevent pest damage to collections?
Many museums, including the Academy's Nature Museum, employ what is called integrated pest management.
It's a process of controlling unwanted pests by reducing or eliminating pest habitat,
food and water resources, and access into the building, and by using harsh chemicals only as a last resort.
Proper storage of items in the collection protects them from all kinds of damage and deterioration.
We can stabilize specimens and other objects by using archival housing materials and storing them in good quality cabinets,
but the initial preparation of a specimen can impact our ability to preserve things long term,
so it's important that our scientific specimens are prepared correctly.
We freeze many items before they are brought into the storage area to eliminate any potential
pests that may have gotten onto a specimen from being brought in.
We keep an eye on things, too.
We regularly monitor in sensitive areas for insect pests using sticky traps.
These little paper houses have a sticky surface on the inside and insects that walk over it get trapped.
This allows us to identify the types of insects that are finding their way into storage areas
and pinpoint any potential problems before they get too big.
Preventing pests' access into the museum building is a museum-wide effort.
Every staff member at the Nature Museum helps keep the building clean
and follows guidelines to prevent an infestation.
Our collections department also sends out these fun flyers about different pest species
to help inform the rest of the staff about pests that can damage collections
and how they can help protect these fragile materials.
Protecting and preserving museum collections is an ongoing effort for collection staff and, really, the whole museum.
You can use these same applications for preserving your items at home, too, and keeping them safe from pests.
Well, that's it for today.
Thank you so much for tuning in.
Check out our other videos for Founders Week
and be sure to leave any questions you have for us in the comments below.
And subscribe so you never miss an episode.
We'll see you here next time on Curious By Nature.