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Carter ARTicles
Bug busters: integrated pest management as a tool for collections’ care
Nov 20, 2024
In our collective imaginations, conservation professionals are often depicted while inpainting beautiful works of art, looking through the microscope for clues to identify artworks’ media or, for the people with the liveliest imaginations, in the act of rescuing ancient archeological artifacts like a real-life Indiana Jones. While some of these stereotypes might be true, there is so much more to the art conservator job!
Preventive conservation, condition assessment, and works of art conservation treatments are all parts of the conservator’s duties. Preventive conservation is an umbrella term for all those conservation practices that aim to prevent, or at the very least minimize, deterioration of art collections or individual objects. Some examples of preventive conservation include monitoring of storage and display areas in terms of levels and variations of temperature, relative humidity, and light exposure; pest control through integrated pest management (IPM) activities; and housekeeping and emergency preparedness. In this article, we are going to cover one of these practices, namely integrated pest management.
These reference cards were created by museumpests.net. We use them to help identify pests during our monthly trap check and identification sessions.
Why is IPM so important in a museum, and why are conservation professionals involved in these practices? The work of a conservator begins with preservation, which contributes to collections’ maintenance and slows down the objects’ deterioration. One of the most important aspects is monitoring environmental parameters such as the relative humidity and temperature of museum spaces and storage areas to ensure the artworks’ conservation, but the environmental-parameters control also serves as a deterrent for insects and other pests. As a matter of fact, certain environmental conditions, such as high humidity and temperature levels, favor pests’ infestations. These can be a huge threat to the artworks, as starches, cellulose, and proteins found in collections are great food sources for various types of pests. At the Carter, there are some insects that we are particularly on the alert for based on the nature of our collection, which comprises mainly photographs, works on paper, and paintings. The list of pests we look out for includes cellulose-eating pests, such as silverfish, booklice, and beetles that are attracted to starch (e.g., woodboring beetles) and proteins (e.g., odd beetles and carpet beetles).
Anthrenus verbasci (varied carpet beetle)
Liposcelididae (booklice)
Anobium punctatum (common wood boring beetle)
Lepisma saccharinum (silverfish)
There are some guidelines the art conservation community agrees on that can help in monitoring pests in museums and institutions. In broad terms, a proper IPM plan should include the following elements:
- Identifying and fixing problems in building and room structure: For example, checking hidden or dark corners, as they are the perfect hiding spots for pests.
- Identifying design weakness in display cases: We must make sure display cases are properly sealed.
- Maintaining a clean environment in collections storage areas and in gallery spaces: This is why food and drinks are not allowed in art spaces.
- Identifying and monitoring pests within the Museum: We install specific traps for each pest—glue traps for crawling insects, and pheromone traps for fabric-feeding pests. We check the traps for trapped pests at regular intervals and record the findings.
- Address proper treatment methods to remove pests from infested objects: This may include freezing or fumigating infested objects.
An example of the pest traps used in the art storage areas.
At the Carter, we do our best to guarantee the safety of collections, and our monthly IPM routine builds on the above-mentioned principles. Every month, we retrieve the glue traps in the art storage spaces and replace them with new ones. Once all the traps are collected, if there are pests present, we proceed with their identification under the microscope. We report monthly which types of pests we find on the traps and evaluate if there are any increasing trends that could represent threats to our collection. This also gives us a better understanding of specific pests’ distribution patterns and helps us in preventing any risks of infestation.
M. Cristina D’Amico inspecting one of the traps under the stereo microscope.
The information we gather through the monitoring of our spaces is extremely important as it allows us to control them without having to resort to routine fumigation or spray treatments of the spaces where art is stored or displayed. The products used in disinfestations usually contain heavy chemicals that might be dangerous for the art and harmful for the environment, so we take a different approach to keep the collections, people, and ecosystem safe. In addition, we have strict measures when it comes to monitoring artworks that enter and exit the Museum. Each item is quarantined and thoroughly examined to make sure no insects are present before it enters temporary or permanent storage spaces.
Live pests are what conservators’ nightmares are made of. In the event we find active pests, the infested object is immediately separated, double bagged, and frozen at below 20°F for as long as necessary to kill the pests and their eggs. Even dead insects can be dangerous to collections as they could become food for other pests. If this occurs, the artwork is isolated, cleaned, and closely monitored to ensure that no further insect activity occurs, as there might still be eggs present. The object will join (or re-join) the collection only when it is deemed that no infestation risk is present.
Although completely preventing pests from entering a museum is impossible, the number of pests and the risks they pose can be significantly reduced by following the practices outlined above and involving colleagues from other departments. In fact, everyone at the Carter is aware of the importance of a strong IPM plan, and it is not uncommon for us to receive questions about pests or requests from coworkers who need assistance in gathering and identifying insects found in different areas of the Museum.
IPM is arguably the least glamorous aspect of conservators' job, but it is pivotal for the safeguard of collections, and as conservators, we must act as advocates and help others to understand the importance of monitoring pests’ activity in art spaces. The cooperation between different departments of the Museum has been crucial in controlling the pests’ presence in the Museum spaces, which makes all our colleagues indispensable allies in our daily battle against pests.
