Museum integrated pest management

Museum integrated pest management is the practice of monitoring and managing pest and environmental information with pest control methods to prevent pest damage to collections and cultural heritage. Preserving and cultural heritage is the ultimate goal for most museum collection personnel. Museum pests come in many different forms: insects, mites, rodents, bats, birds, and fungi and the two most common types are insects and fungi. It is widely recommended that every museum have some form of pest control in place and monitoring system to protect their collection and that museums review their storage and museum facilities to determine how to best control and prevent pest infestations while utilizing an Integrated Pest Management plan.

Museum IPM is a sub specialty of Integrated pest management that focuses specifically on the application in museums and cultural institutions. The primary difference between IPM and Museum IPM is that in the context of a museum, the main focus is placed on the protection of collections from pests.

Integrated Pest Management is a ‘holistic’ approach to controlling pests” that seeks to understand what pests are attracted to, their habits, and life cycles. Part of this program is to identify what types of pests are located in the building, establish the museum's short- and long-term goals for their IPM program, and build a consensus amongst the staff. The museum should “consult experts if necessary and choose the most appropriate and safe control methods for (the) eradication” of the pests. It is important not to panic and rush to rash decisions if a few pests are discovered. A museum should be thoughtful and plan out of their steps before taking any action.

Integrated Pest Management requires the museum to allocate time and energy for the implementation and monitoring the progress of their program. An IPM program “will require the coordinated effort of all staff members to properly implement, and may initially be more expensive than traditional pest management”.

The implementation of integrated pest management should be done in steps. To begin, a museum should review a floor plan of the building and determine all “doors, windows, water and heat sources, and drains”, as well as all furniture and other objects within the museum. The museum can place traps that have been numbered and dated throughout the building using the floor plan as a guide of potential problem areas. The location of the traps should be documented and marked on the floor plan. Once the traps are in place, they should be monitored. Detailed notes should be made on the finding in the traps, which pests are being trapped, how they are accessing the museum, and what do these trapped pests look for in a food source. After the first few months, the trap placement should be refined to insure the best outcome.

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