Sadly, the garden’s ornamental pond no longer has working plumbing for pump and filter to help keep the water free of algae.  Dis-satisfied with the use of chlorine and water colorants, I’ve tried a variety of plantings meant to shade the water and absorb some of the nitrogen and phosphorus in the water that feed the algae.  These, plus hand skimming and bi-monthly pumping and mucking-out have mostly worked.

This is all by way of introduction to the surprise benefit of a little anti-mosquito ecosystem.  Not only do large animals like birds (Coopers hawk for example) and squirrels come to drink, in the water there is a community of thumbnail size critters.  The pool is too shallow and hot for fish, but as hitchhikers either on a duck’s feet or on purchased water plants, several species of insects have arrived.  Arriving on their own are dragon and damselfly larvae.  The top predators, lurking in the bottom of the pond, are the 1 to 1.75 inch immatures of species like the Blue Dasher (Pachydiplax longipennis)  or  Green Darner (Anax junius) eat whoever they can catch – from mosquito larvae to their siblings.

Just as hungry are the critters you are likely to notice skittering on or near the surface: Water Striders (Neogerris hessione) and Backswimmers (Notonecta undulate aka Coraxia sp ).  They will grab adult mosquitos trying to lay eggs, or gobble-up larvae that manage to hatch.  One finds very very few mosquito “wrigglers” in this still pool.

Blue Dasher

As Leeuwenhoek wrote in 1676 of his early microscopy observations “… This was to me, among all  the marvels that I have discovered in Nature,  the most marvelous of all; and I must say for  my part, that no greater pleasure has yet come  to my eye than these spectacles of so many  thousands of living creatures in a small drop of  water….” But these marvels here can be viewed with your unaided eye if you simply stop to look.

Coopers Hawk

Photographing this miniature menagerie was beyond my skill.  I turned to some super fun websites from Iowa State University, the Univ of Michigan – Dearborn campus (where I spent many enjoyable afternoons), and the Roger Tory Peterson Institue in New York (Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History ).    Let us all thank these patient naturalists!

I visited the locally-owned, but world-renown, Insects Limited headquarters to take part in a one-day workshop on museum pest management. Sure I learned about pests in graduate school, but it’s been a while since I studied a bug under a microscope. And to top it off, I had my picture taken by Crista Pack of recent NYT fame.

Some may think that spending a whole day looking at little things that have long Latin names wouldn’t be very cool, but it was for me. Where else am I going to learn about the “Dirty Dozen” of museum pests? To help share my experience and keep my co-workers at the ready, I think I’ll make these Bug Flash Cards and start quizzing anyone I see in the hallway or at lunch. I got those cards from www.museumpests.net, a great pest management resource.

While we rarely see any of these guys at the IMA, we stay on the watch so we can squash a problem before it even starts to get serious (forgive the pun, but you knew it was going to be in here somewhere, didn’t you?).

Ask anyone who works with a museum collection: the appearance of just one webbing clothes moth, demisted beetle, or wood eating insect is enough to put a whole department on high alert. These insects will eat art and that’s not good for anybody. For every ethnographic object, rug, tapestry, gown, piece of paper, feather, or furniture there’s a bug that will eat it.

To help us make certain we’re doing an excellent job of monitoring for pest, the IMA has Pat Kelley from Insects Limited come to the grounds every month to check the buildings for possible activity. He and I have looked at a number of art objects that showed signs of prior insect activity, carefully taking the time to identify each one that is found. One of his counterparts, Alain VanRyckeghem runs the Insects Limited lab where they are developing pheromones for better insect monitoring. These two guys are pretty much the CSI equivalent of the insect world. I’ve never seen an insect they can’t identify.

On entomological tangent if you like spitting crickets, racing cockroaches, or think bugs are cool, you should join the other 29,999 people that will be attending Purdue University’s Bug Bowl next month.