First tour: Vats of thriving, meat-eating insects in the basement
The Discovery Room recently had an infestation of dermestid beetles. Dermestids eat carrion, and are useful to the museum because they are the best method of cleaning delicate bones. However, dermestids can also be very destructive. They can obliterate rare taxidermied birds. Since there are rare taxidermied birds in the Discovery Room, this has been quite a problem. It is believed that the previous director of the room had a colony of these beetles on display, and that some secretly escaped and bred behind the walls, unknown to anyone until now.
To clean the Discovery Room, the taxidermied animals and many other materials had to be carefully vacuumed, put in boxes, and then stored in a freezer room for ten days. After spending a week doing that, this morning we found another beetle hanging out in the lubber grasshopper tank. Since dermestids don't eat living things, the grasshoppers were not in any danger, but their tank had to be cleaned out, as well as the hissing cockroaches' tank, which is adjacent to it, so that the tanks don't become a new hiding place for dermestids.
So, this morning we went to the basement to talk to a scientist who has the job of preparing bones, as well as protecting the museum's collection from pests. He has an entire room dedicated to dermestids. The beetles live in two large wooden crates, and are feed chicken, fish, and pig carcasses when they are not actively cleaning artifacts. We went in the room to get a good look at them. At the base of the door was a thick slab of glue to catch any beetles that might escape. On one side of the room was a rack of animal carcasses, which were dried; I think the museum dehydrates them in-house. The room smelled like rotten flesh. I always wondered what rotten flesh smelled like; now I know, and I'm not sure I'm any better off for it. Inside the crates the insects were thriving. The smell was worse when the boxes were opened.
We also went into the freezer room to pick up the first batch of already-treated boxes. Upstairs, the Discovery Room staff spent the morning transferring the lubber grasshoppers and hissing cockroaches to their new, temporary habitats.
To clean the Discovery Room, the taxidermied animals and many other materials had to be carefully vacuumed, put in boxes, and then stored in a freezer room for ten days. After spending a week doing that, this morning we found another beetle hanging out in the lubber grasshopper tank. Since dermestids don't eat living things, the grasshoppers were not in any danger, but their tank had to be cleaned out, as well as the hissing cockroaches' tank, which is adjacent to it, so that the tanks don't become a new hiding place for dermestids.
So, this morning we went to the basement to talk to a scientist who has the job of preparing bones, as well as protecting the museum's collection from pests. He has an entire room dedicated to dermestids. The beetles live in two large wooden crates, and are feed chicken, fish, and pig carcasses when they are not actively cleaning artifacts. We went in the room to get a good look at them. At the base of the door was a thick slab of glue to catch any beetles that might escape. On one side of the room was a rack of animal carcasses, which were dried; I think the museum dehydrates them in-house. The room smelled like rotten flesh. I always wondered what rotten flesh smelled like; now I know, and I'm not sure I'm any better off for it. Inside the crates the insects were thriving. The smell was worse when the boxes were opened.
We also went into the freezer room to pick up the first batch of already-treated boxes. Upstairs, the Discovery Room staff spent the morning transferring the lubber grasshoppers and hissing cockroaches to their new, temporary habitats.