[Syrphidae] Re: Syrphidae Digest, Vol 22, Issue 8
stevenfalk at warwickshire.gov.uk
stevenfalk at warwickshire.gov.uk
Mon Oct 23 15:36:58 BST 2006
Frank,
In addition to any freezing, use physical barriers to prevent pests like
Anthrenus beetles form getting into your cabinets/storeboxes. Ploys we use
here at Warwickshire Museum (plus with my own collection at home) include:
Stilted individual platforms for cabinets with foil inserted at the tops of
legs (onto which you can put Silica powder to trap any crawling pests)
Keeping cabinets and storeboxes away from any walls and isolating them from
each other by a few inchews where possible
Storing storboxes vertically so that any infestation can be spotted by the
frass that falls below (much less obvious if kept flat)
Use of 'gripper' bags for storeboxes where appropriate (my calypterates and
other larger flies seem to be particulalrly attractive to pests, and
definitely smell stronger than smaller flies.
Strict protocols for drawers and storeboxes in use - keep lids on or keep
closed as much as possible and great care when adding new material,
especially if lax storage suspected. You van always freeze new material to
be sure.
There are also a plethora of chemicals to zap infestation - but all of them
are now outlawed in the UK!!
Also avoid sources of dampness and this can allow Psocoptera population to
build up as well as mould
The final ploy is to use or check a collection regularly - so that any new
infestation is spotted early. Keep a simple chart aide-memoir on a wall
with the date you last checked your collection.
Good luck & best wishes
Steven Falk, Senior Keeper of Natural History,
Warwickshire Museum, Market Place, Warwick CV34 4SA
tel: 01926 412481, fax: 01926 419840
Interested in natural history events and groups in Warwickshire, Coventry
and Solihull? Visit the Warwickshire RINGs web site at:
www.warwickshire.gov.uk/rings and spread the word!
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Today's Topics:
1. Re: freeze desinfection of insect drawers (Frank Dziock)
2. Re: Volucella larvae from wasps nest (Frank Dziock)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Mon, 23 Oct 2006 10:36:30 +0200
From: Frank Dziock <frank.dziock at tu-berlin.de>
Subject: Re: [Syrphidae] freeze desinfection of insect drawers
To: Andrew Whittington <andrew at flyevidence.co.uk>
Cc: Hoverfly list discussion <syrphidae at nottingham.ac.uk>
Message-ID: <453C7F0E.4040308 at tu-berlin.de>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Dear Andrew,
thanks for the detailed and very helpful information.
We also have a freeze for down to -80 degrees here, but I do not know
whether that would be too cold? It is possible to adjust the temperature
though, but then my colleagues that have genetic material stored in the
freezer would not be amused.
I will see, whether it is possible to relocate the genetic samples and
have the temperature adjusted to -35 degrees for my material and use
that more powerful freezer for freeze-fumigation.
Thanks very much again and best wishes from Berlin,
Frank
Andrew Whittington schrieb:
> Dear Frank
>
> Sorry, I was away at the time your email arrived, so I've come into the
> answering string quite late. I'm copying my response directly to the
> discussion list as well, because these details may be of use to other
> people.
>
> I was directly responsible for freeze-fumigation at the National Museums
> of Scotland, prior to my resignation. We used the
> following technique for museum-grade freeze-fumigation:
>
> For all mites and coleopterous museum pests the temperature needs to
> fall below -32 degrees Celsius for a minimum of 72 hours. For moths, and
> perhaps fungi, a slightly higher temperature is fine, but to ensure
> the mites and coleopterous museum pests are destroyed, you do need the
> above grade freeze-fumigation to rid a collection completely. My
> experience suggests that if you have moths, then you are as well
> treating for mites and coleopterous museum pests as well.
>
> We used these levels of freezing even for collections not suspected of
> being infested - this way the entire collection had the same base level
> fumigation. As is common at many institutions (thanks Chris!) all in
> coming material and all suspect material within the collections were
> thus treated. All materials were bagged and sealed prior
> to freeze-fumigation, but the period to leave them there after removal
> from the freezer, before removing the plastic bags, is not as long as
> mentioned in the responses. We left collections only as long as it
> takes to reach room temperature again, and this was usually under twelve
> hours. No damage was ever experienced from this short duration over
> thousands of trials. In fact, no damage was experienced to any of the
> collections, drawers, pins or materials freeze-fumigated in this way.
>
> Now, you have a freezer reaching about -18 degrees Celsius. This can be
> a problem in three ways:
> 1. it is not cold enough to kill the eggs of known museum-pests (and
> sometimes the other stages of insects or spores of fungi).
> 2. if you have a pest problem it may only suppress the infestation until
> temperatures rise again (perhaps as late as summer next year if
> you freeze-fumigate it now).
> 3. you will be lulled into a state of false self-security.
>
> Increasing the duration beyond the 72 hours mentioned above, to
> counter-act the effect of the higher temperature of your freezer (i.e.
> domestic freezers) may work, but to my knowledge it is scientifically
> untested and may result in 2 and 3 in the list above. If you do use your
> domestic freezer, you will need to remain vigilant over your collection
> to ensure it remains free of infestation after you have processed it in
> this way -- it's a good idea to do this anyway!! Given that you do not
> have a known infestation, it will at least give you peace of mind, but
> it will not guarantee infestation free conditions; I have used the
> method myself (with a two week freezing period), but when in doubt, I
> try to get my material to the National Museums of Scotland. You likewise
> should be able to find some organisation with a freezer reaching -32 or
> lower. If the Museum doesn't have one, try some of the University
> Departments or commercial bulk freezing companies in the city.
>
> At present I know of no literature off-hand that I can direct you
> toward, but I'll keep an eye out. The above is, however, good, well
> tried and tested practical experience.
>
> All the best
>
> Andrew
>
> --
> Andrew E. Whittington PhD FRES
> Consultant Entomologist
> FlyEvidence
> 2 Newhouse Terrace
> Queen's Road
> Dunbar EH42 1LG
> SCOTLAND
>
> Mobile: 077 3400 6866
> *SKYPE: Flyevidence*
> Phone: +44 (0)1368 869 722
>
> Email: andrew at flyevidence.co.uk <mailto:%20andrew at flyevidence.co.uk>
>
> http://www.flyevidence.co.uk <http://www.flyevidence.co.uk/>
>
>
> Honorary Fellow of the School of Molecular and Clinical Medicine,
> College of Medicine and Veterinary Science,
> University of Edinburgh
>
>
>
>
>
>
--
Prof. Dr. Frank Dziock
Fachgebiet Biodiversitätsdynamik
der TU Berlin
Sekr. AB 1
Rothenburgstr. 12
D - 12165 Berlin
Germany
Tel: 030 â€" 314 71368
Fax: 030 â€" 314 71355
http://www.tu-berlin.de/fb7/ioeb/biodiversitaet/
"God in his wisdom made the fly, and then forgot to tell us why." Ogden
Nash
special issue on �Bioindication and Functional Response in Floodplain
Systems� out now!
published in International Review of Hydrobiology
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/60500251
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Mon, 23 Oct 2006 10:53:46 +0200
From: Frank Dziock <frank.dziock at tu-berlin.de>
Subject: Re: [Syrphidae] Volucella larvae from wasps nest
To: Hoverfly discussion list <syrphidae at lists.nottingham.ac.uk>
Message-ID: <453C831A.2070606 at tu-berlin.de>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Hello Günter and everybody,
just to add on the comments you already received:
We had a wasp nest (Vespula vulgaris) in the roof exactly above our
balcony in 2001 in the centre of the city Leipzig in Central Germany.
End of September I discovered some larvae under the wooden parquet
covering the floor of the balcony. I put a flower pot underneath the
wasp nest and recorded the fall of larvae every two or three days. In
five weeks 80 larvae of Volucella sp. fell from the nest and I
identified 4 V. inanis and the rest was of the Volucella
pellucens/zonaria-type. I am not sure about the correct species
identification of the latter, but my impression was that both pellucens
and zonaria (larval size ranged from 6 to 23mm)(and 4 larval specimens
of inanis) fell from the nest.
I was really impressed by the amount of larvae that fell from the nest
and can imagine that people could be worried about what these larvae are
doing in their homes.
Best wishes from Berlin,
Frank
Günter Schwendinger schrieb:
> Hello everybody,
>
> Yesterday a friend of from the local museum of natural history
> www.inatura.at <http://www.inatura.at> asked me if I could help him
> identify a larva which I think is a syrphid. The length of the larvae is
> 13mm (without stigmata-"horn" which has another 1mm of length). The
> larvae have been found inside houses in three cities/villages around
> here (Dornbirn, Feldkirch and Egg, all in Vorarlberg/Western Austria)
> during the last week - some in a guestroom which is not used very often,
> some in the corner of a room on the floor with mice's feces around and
> some "falling from the ceiling" according to the people who brought the
> larva to the inatura.
> Could anyone of you help me identify the species or genus? I'd
> appreciate any kind of information.
> Another thing: What were these maggots doing inside the nearly empty
> rooms? (the people here have asked for this kind of information).
>
> Thanks in advance
> Günter Schwendinger
>
> (Photos by Klaus Zimmermann)
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> Syrphidae mailing list
> Syrphidae at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
> http://lists.nottingham.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/syrphidae
--
Prof. Dr. Frank Dziock
Fachgebiet Biodiversitätsdynamik
der TU Berlin
Sekr. AB 1
Rothenburgstr. 12
D - 12165 Berlin
Germany
Tel: 030 â€" 314 71368
Fax: 030 â€" 314 71355
http://www.tu-berlin.de/fb7/ioeb/biodiversitaet/
"God in his wisdom made the fly, and then forgot to tell us why." Ogden
Nash
special issue on �Bioindication and Functional Response in Floodplain
Systems� out now!
published in International Review of Hydrobiology
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/60500251
------------------------------
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