Materials, objects and common damaging insect pests
Material
Cellulosics: Solid masses such as timbers and shelved books
Damage to representative objects
Holes bored in book block and board book covers, wood implements, and furniture. Wood structures bored into are weakened, especially near end grain (joints) of beams, poles, piles, sills, rafters, and flooring.
Common pests
Structural wood pests, lyctids (hardwood only), anobiids, longhorn beetles, carpenter ants, termites (limited range in southern Ontario and British Columbia). Also, a wide variety of wood-boring insects are found in rotten wood and wood outdoors in damp conditions.
Material
Cellulosics: Paper surfaces
Damage to representative objects
Grazing to eating book covers, artwork, letters, wallpaper, and insulation.
Common pests
Silverfish, cockroaches, book lice (psocids).
Material
Plant fibres and flower parts, leaves, and bark
Damage to representative objects
Herbarium specimens, baskets, cordage, and coarse-fibre goods.
Common pests
Cigarette beetle (Lasioderma serricorne), drugstore beetle (Stegobium paniceum), Reesa vespulae, ptinids.
Material
Starches
Damage to representative objects
Boring into stored seeds and grains. Consumption of adhesive paste joints..
Common pests
Weevils, Indian meal moth, cockroaches, silverfish.
Material
Keratin: Hair, fur, nails, horn, and baleen
Damage to representative objects
Stripping of fur clothing, hair embroidery, quillwork, and natural history specimens.
Common pests
Clothes moths and dermestids.
Material
Collagen: Skin, hide, and parchment
Damage to representative objects
Garments, sinew cordage, bags, drumskins, glue joints, and book bindings.
Common pests
Many dermestids, commonly Anthrenus and Attagenus species, Thylodrias contractus, and ptinids (spider beetles).
Material
Mouldy and damp objects
Damage to representative objects
Grazing on micro-moulds found on archival paper, artworks.
Common pests
Psocids (book lice) and lathrids (plaster beetles).
CCI Technical Bulletin Nº 29.
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