Integrated pest management (IPM)

Contributions by: Joanne Lim

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is part of a preventive care effort done to minimize or slow down rate of deterioration, and to prevent damages to collections due to museum pests.

Related Terms

Synonyms in English

Pest management, Preventive conservation/care, Preventive Conservation

Translation

English	Integrated Pest Management
French	Gestion Intégrée des Ravageurs
Spanish	Manejo Integrado de Plagas
Portuguese	Manejo Integrado de Pragas
Italian	Gestione Integrata dei Parassiti
German	Integrierten Pflanzenschutz
Russian	комплексной борьбы с вредителями
Arabic	الإدارة المتكاملة للآفات
Chinese (Traditional)	綜合蟲害管理

Discussion

As compared to traditional pest management which encourages the use of repeated chemical application without understanding the species or number of pests present, the IPM approach is more holistic. The IPM approach looks at different aspects in a museum setting and encourage using less chemicals.

Museums are encouraged to have a customized IPM plan for their institution. The following are principle objectives of an IPM plan: [[1]]

1. Protection of Property – realize that effective pest control for collections and buildings goes beyond killing bugs or applying pesticides
2. Protection of Health and Safety – understand the main idea of IPM is to minimize use of chemicals use to protect health and safety of guests, staff and environment
3. Legal Compliance – realize Storage and use of chemicals are subjected to various rules and regulations.

A good IPM plan should include the following elements: [[2]]

1. Identifying and fixing problems in building and room structure - E.g. Check for hidden or dark corners that could possibly encourage pest to reside
2. Identifying design weakness in showcases - E.g. Ensure showcases properly sealed
3. Maintaining a clean environment in collections storage area and in gallery space - E.g. Disallow food and drinks
4. Identifying and monitoring pests within museum - E.g. Install specific traps for each pests such as sticky traps for ants and lizards, and pheromone traps for fabric feeding pests, Count the trapped insects at regular intervals and record the findings
5. Address proper treatment methods to remove pests from infested objects - E.g. Freezing infested objects, Fumigating infested objects

Conservators should always look for expert opinion on removing pests when unsure. This is particularly for wood destroying insects like termites, powderpost beetles. These pests may cause structural damage to the museum building and can spread to the documents storage area. #[[3]]

References

Collections ManagementThe Paleontology Portal. (n.d.). Retrieved March 20, 2015, from http://collections.paleo.amnh.org/8/integrated-pest-management

Museumpest.net. (n.d.). Retrieved March 15, 2015, from http://museumpests.net

Integrated Pest Management. (2011). In R. Buck & J. Gilmore (Eds.), Museum Registration Methods (pp. 369 - 380). Washington D.C: The AAM Press.

Also see the following pages on the AIC wiki Preventive Conservation and Preventive Care

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