Pest Eating Old Books In Aslimolean Museum

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31144, 22 August 1966, Page 11

Pest Eating Old Books In Aslimolean Museum

An insect is attacking the:' old books with starch-faced j < -paper in the Ashmoleanj. Museum, Oxford, and digest-1 ing the printers’ ink, says the' N.Z.P.A. correspondent ini I London. I ; He says that £lB5O will be < spent to rid the library of the : •pest. i ' The insects are nocturnal < • and not easily seen. They are 'a grave threat to the 10,000 , volumes in the library and possibly to the drawing in the | 'print room, he says. - From the description it was -difficult to tell what the in"sects were, but they could be -silverfish, said the senior i •entomologist at the entomollogy division of the Depart--ment of Scientific and Industrial Research at Lincoln (Mr i IL. J. Dumbleton): "Silverfish would be after '

the starch, but I can’t eoniceive of them taking a liking j to printers’ ink,” he said. I ‘‘They are a common pest. • You get them in wallpaper, 'and in old books. They do occur in books and houses in New Zealand, but they are more of a trouble in warmer climates. “Some other kinds of insect are reasonably common in old books, but they bore tunnels, I like those of a wood borer, through them.” Mr Dumbleton said silverfish were flat-bodied, silvery insects. They were noctural, quick moving, and attracted to startch. “It used to be common in the tropics to paint inside the covers of books with a repellant material to keep these things out,” he said.