The Integrated Pest Management Working Group, (IPM-WG) is a group of collection managers, conservators, entomologists and other professionals interested in issues surrounding the implementation of integrated pest management in museums and other collection-holding institutions.
The group meets annually, informally hosted by the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
We are not officially affiliated with any other organization or institution although we do have informal links to the American Institute for Conservation and the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections which have supported the IPM-WG in various ways.The goal of the IPM Working Group is to promote and facilitate good IPM practices and collaboration between staff and institutions through the development and on-line distribution of training materials and other resources..
For more on the history and goals of the group please take a look at the presentations 2008 American Institute for Conservation Presentation 2006 Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections presentation.
To access the Working Group’s Portion of the site please click here
Data Collectiom Subgroup
The main goal of the Data Collection subgroup is to find ways to help museums organize and archive pest-monitoring data. In order to do this, a field list of data concepts deemed most important for pest monitoring has been developed. This list should serve as a guide to individuals and institutions that may be developing or refining their pest-monitoring databases. The list is available on the website by clicking here. Another initiative is a call for information from the community. You will be asked to submit via a web interface a self-evaluation of your current pest-monitoring database. The information obtained will be reported on the web site so visitors can see how other museums are approaching this issue and will serve as a basis for further discussions. A long-term goal for this subgroup is development of means to simplify or speed up data collection activities.
Identification Aids Subgroup
The principal activity of this subgroup is to develop an on-line database of museum pests. The database will be structured for easy access through a variety of methods such as searching by common or scientific name, associations, food preferences, and geography as well as by identification key. The site will provide summary data about the pest, its associations and control. The group has already developed a format for identification sheets with images and text that can be downloaded or printed for easy reference. To see an example of the template please click here. Group members are currently working on developing these sheets for the top 20 museum pests, as identified by our recent questionnaire. Along with this project, a database of pest images is being built and will also be available on the web site. As with all areas of the site, information content and images will be reviewed by a committee and will be updated as appropriate. We envision the web site as a dynamic resource that will remain active and up-to-date..
Standards and Best Practices Subgroup
This group is focusing on three main areas: IPM Policies and how they fit within museum collection policies; Procedures that can be followed concerning activities like trapping, visual inspection, shipping and loans, and cleaning; and Tools, which encompasses areas like education packages, risk and cost analyses, scientific studies and, most importantly, training material. This subgroup recognized early on that a great deal of work has already been done in all of these areas and they have made it a priority in this initial phase to gather as many of these resources as possible and present them in a simple, logical manner for inclusion on the web site. All content will be vetted by the Standards subgroup prior to inclusion on the web site. A long-term goal is development of a Standards and Best Practices ''''template'''' covering many of these issues. The group’s ideas on how Standards and Best Practices are developed and used have been organized into an easy-to-read grid that is now available on the website.
Treatments Subgroup
Following the format described for the Best Practices subgroup, this group will focus its efforts on collecting procedures for treatments, bibliographies, and other links relating to physical, chemical and modified atmosphere treatments. Results will be summarized and annotated by a group of moderators before being presented on the web site.
Visualization and Mapping Subgroup
The goal of this new subgroup, which will meet for the first time at the IPM-WG annual meeting in 2007 is to work on identifying programs such as GIS that allow for mapping and visualization of pest activity. Some institutions have found this an invaluable resource for identifying pest problems in their buildings.
Web Resources Subgroup
This group now is currently collecting links to existing resources on the web – such as organizations, people, resources, tools, classes, etc. Additionally, a bibliography of pest related references is available. It is hoped that the www.museumpests.net website will serve as a unified resource for information about IPM and that anyone with IPM needs will visit MuseumPests.net first.
The redesign of the www.museumpests.net website has been made possible by the generosity of a number of organizations and institutions including:
We are grateful for the support of the professionals who have come to the IPM Working Group annual meeting and generously donated their time, expertise and skills for the benefit of the group and the museum community.
We gratefully acknowledge the institutional support without which our work would not have been possible. Institutions marked with an * are also donors who supported the creation of this website.
The IPM-WG generally meets on the last Monday and Tuesday in February. Meetings have been generously hosted by American Museum of Natural History in New York City.
There is no cost for attending the meeting. Participants are responsible though for their own expenses such as travel, meals and accommodations [link to accommodations list that should be text not a pdf for easier updating].
Although it is strongly encouraged that members of the IPM-WG attend the annual meeting, budgets and work schedules do not always allow for travel.
It is possible to become a member without attending the Working Group meetings.
Participants are encouraged to become members of up to two committees and are expected to carry out between 10-20 hours of work on IPM-WG projects annually.
The committees are as follows:
Standards & Best Practices - The Standards & Best Practices Committee has, to date focused on three main areas: IPM Policies and how they fit within museum collection policies; Procedures that can be followed concerning activities like trapping, visual inspection, shipping and loans, and cleaning; and Tools, such as tips sheets for various aspects of IPM implementation, staff education training material, risk and cost analyses, scientific studies and training material.
Data Collection & Visualization - The main goals of the Data Collection & Visualization Committee are to find ways to help museums organize, archive, and present pest-monitoring data including information on databases and programs (such as GIS) that allow for mapping and visualization of pest activity.
Identification Aids - The principal activity of the Identification Aids Committee is to develop on-line resources for the identification of museum pests. Efforts include ID Fact Sheets, and image database and the collection of other resources that may benefit the broader community.
Treatment - The Treatment Committee has focused its efforts on presenting information on various pest control treatments and methods in a standardized way to assist staff members in evaluate and selecting physical, chemical and modified atmosphere treatments appropriate for their collections and institutions.
Web Resources - The Web Resources Committee is responsible for ensuring that the resources presented on www.museumpests.net are accurate and current..
If you would like to submit material to be posted for the community on the museumpests.net website you may send a digital copy to the Web Resources Committee Chair Chair by clicking here.
You may also submit material by using the form below.
In order to post material, a release form (available by clicking here) must be signed by the appropriate officer from your institution and submitted to IPM-WG.
Corrections or additions to the bibliography or web resources pages do not require a release. If you have an IPM related announcement of interest to the community please click here to submit the information.
Images can be JPG, GIF or PNG, up to 4 megs in size.