Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections September 2020 - 25

Features

Figure 1. The three species of rodents collected since 2000
at the SNM.

species are native, and their human interactions seem to be
unintentional.
Cockroaches
Cockroaches have been found in the building since the first
trapping cycle in May 2000 but were rarely identified to species. Annual cockroach totals ranged from 12 (2010) to 98
(2007). Due to potential issues in comparing identifications
across individual technicians, trends for cockroaches are presented for only 2017-2020 (Fig. 2), with identification by our
current IPM technician trained by a professional entomologist
in identification of insects and arachnids.
Since 2017, American and German cockroaches have been
collected. With half of the bimonthly trapping cycle complete
for 2020, 77 cockroaches have been collected January 1,
2020-June 30, 2020. We have already surpassed annual numbers for the last 3 years and are anticipating more than double
the number of cockroaches in 2020 compared to recent
previous years. The increase occurred in both species and is
proportional to their typical annual numbers.
Concluding Remarks
While the SNM had no disruption in the monitoring of our
building during COVID-19 closures, the same is not true for
the majority of institutions. According to an April 2020 survey of US biodiversity science collections, most collections
reported as partially or fully closed were conducting periodic
monitoring of their collections for environmental conditions,
security, and hazards, but less than 30% of collections were
monitoring for pest control purposes, despite pests being a
significant risk to collections (Pandey 2020). The results of
our uninterrupted monitoring during our COVID-19 closure
have demonstrated that pest activity increased dramatically
with the decrease in human activity in our building, and quick
responses by IPM staff were essential in identifying problem

Figure 2. Total cockroaches collected annually in the SNM.
The solid bars for 2020 represent captures through June
30, 2020, with hashed bars extrapolating the current rate of
cockroaches collected to the entirety of 2020.

areas and containing localized pest increases without further
movement into more sensitive museum spaces, such as collections or exhibits.
Literature Cited

Pandey, J. 2020. COVID-19 Impacts on Biodiversity Science
Collections: Survey Results Identify Concerns. Retrieved
from https://bcon.aibs.org/2020/05/19/covid-19-impacts-onbiodiversity-science-collections/.
Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, 2401
Chautauqua Ave., Norman, OK 73072, USA;
bcoyner@ou.edu; ipm.samnoblemuseum@ou.edu.

September 2020 * 25

https://bcon.aibs.org/2020/05/19/covid-19-impacts-on-biodiversity-science-collections/ https://bcon.aibs.org/2020/05/19/covid-19-impacts-on-biodiversity-science-collections/

Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections September 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections September 2020