Essential oils: a potential addition to integrated pest management strategies against adult varied carpet beetle, Anthrenus verbasci, in natural science collections

Peace, K., Bakaloudis, D. E., Callaghan, A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2731-3352, Cañada Luna, I. and Holloway, G. J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0495-0313 (2022) Essential oils: a potential addition to integrated pest management strategies against adult varied carpet beetle, Anthrenus verbasci, in natural science collections. Bulletin of Insectology, 75 (2). pp. 247-252. ISSN 1721-8861

Abstract/Summary

The varied carpet beetle, Anthrenus verbasci (L.), is a major pest in museums containing artifacts or specimens of animal origin, e.g., natural science collections. Integrated pest management techniques are deployed to prevent A. verbasci access and controlling the pest should they be found on valuable artifacts. Several synthetic chemicals have been used in the past in the fight against A. verbasci and other insect pest species but the use of these chemicals (such as naphthalene and dichlorvos) is now banned following health concerns. Attention is turning towards natural compounds in the search for natural, safe alternatives. As well as having active ingredients against adult A. verbasci, it is also essential that any useful products found fall within museum budgets. Here we examine the repellent properties of four ‘off-the-shelf’ essential oils: clove, lemon, lavender, and eucalyptus. All four essential oils exhibited some repellent property, but A. verbasci found lavender and eucalyptus oils the most repellent, offering the possibility that some easy to obtain and inexpensive natural products might have a role to play in museum IPM.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/108394
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Life Sciences > School of Biological Sciences > Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Uncontrolled Keywords	museum, IPM, Dermestidae, control, alternative techniques
Publisher	Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences - Università di Bologna
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