[Nhcoll-l] Dermestid colony

[Paul R Sweet]

As manager of the AMNH dermestarium I would just like to clarify our beetle containment protocol. Our colonies are in stainless steel tanks in a dedicated small room. The tanks have lids and a barrier of petroleum jelly to prevent the beetles climbing up the sides, this is especially important in the corners. Any escapees are prevented from leaving the room by a barrier of "Trapper" insect glue applied to a wide strip of duct tape placed in front of the door.

Paul

Paul Sweet
Collection Manager
Department of Ornithology
American Museum of Natural History
Central Park West at 79th Street
New York, NY 10024

Tel: 212 769 5780
Cell: 718 757 5941

From: nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu [mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Alexandra Snyder
Sent: Thursday, August 01, 2013 11:00 AM
To: David Dyer
Cc: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] Dermestid colony

As you have noted, dermestid beetle colonies should never be anywhere near museum collections (typically they are kept in a separate building or on the roof top of the museum) but with limited space and funding, good museum practice is often difficult to achieve.  One method of containment that I saw in practice at the American Museum of Natural History was to have trenches full of "tanglefoot" surrounding the room in which the colonies are maintained.  You may want to contact them for further details.

On Thu, Aug 1, 2013 at 8:17 AM, David Dyer <DDyer at ohiohistory.org<mailto:DDyer at ohiohistory.org>> wrote:
Greetings,

I am planning to start a dermestid colony for skeletal preparation. In my last position I operated a large and active colony that was isolated in a separate room and down the hall from the collections storage.  However at this museum it looks like the only option will be in the lab and office space that is directly next to the collections storage.  Has anyone come up with a safe way to operate a colony to minimize escapees and potential harm to the collections? We had a pretty strict protocol for the dermestid colony in my last job and had very few, if any, problems in many years of operation. However, I need a fool-proof system to also keep our history and archaeology curators from being too worried about their nearby collections! Has anyone set up a similar colony? Any ideas are appreciated!

Dave

==========================================================
David L. Dyer
Curator of Natural History                              Phone: 614-298-2055<tel:614-298-2055>
Ohio Historical Society                                      Fax:      614-298-2089<tel:614-298-2089>
800 E. 17th Ave.                                                    ddyer at ohiohistory.org<mailto:ddyer at ohiohistory.org>
Columbus, Ohio 43211-2474


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--
************************************************
Alexandra M Snyder, Collections Manager
Museum of Southwestern Biology-Fishes
University of New Mexico MSC03-2020
Albuquerque NM 87131 USA
PH./Fax 505.277.6005   amsnyder at unm.edu<mailto:amsnyder at unm.edu>
http://www.msb.unm.edu/fishes/index.html

Physical Address: 302 Yale Blvd NE, CERIA Bldg 83, Room 204

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