Links for Episode 20: Fly tying pests
Feb 28, 2018
Hi folks, Here are some links for this episode, including pictures of these pests, so you can recognize them.
Dermestid beetles. As I’ve mentioned, there are multiple species you need to worry about, here are some pictures of some of them:
This link has a nice picture of a larder beetle adult and larva. I’ve seen these a lot in our house, and sometimes in our materials, but they really aren’t the ones I’m most worried about (at least in my experience):
http://ento.psu.edu/extension/factsheets/larder-beetle
and here is a nice link showing several different species – as well as their immature stages:
http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7436.html
the black carpet beetle is our nemesis in this house.
And here is a nice link on clothes moths:
http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7435.html
which also has information about fumigation with carbon dioxide using dry ice – which is an interesting technique.
As promised, here is a link to the press release about the article on insects in our homes.
I thought it was a nice article – kind of fun.
And finally, a really fun article about how the Field Museum in Chicago uses dermestid beetles to clean skeletons:
And lastly, here are two articles about washing your materials:
http://globalflyfisher.com/tie-better/washing-your-materials
and
http://globalflyfisher.com/tie-better/cleaning-fly-tying-material
where I think I would disagree with the second article about microwaving to get rid of pests. Selene has tried that in particular, and did not have luck with that method.