Beetlemania! Hungry bugs eat treasures from history
THEY have survived the ravages of time. Now Britain’s historical treaures are under siege – from hungry insects.
The beetles, moths and larvae have eaten through 18th century armchairs, rare Chinese wallpaper and even George Bernard Shaw’s knickerbockers.
And the National Trust says their numbers have doubled in five years – possibly caused by warm winters.
The worst damage includes holes from the larvae of a furniture beetle which pepper the legs of a gilded armchair from Rome at the Italianstyle palace of Ickworth in Suffolk. Insects called silverfish have eaten away part of the beautiful Chinese wallpaper at Saltram in Devon.
The same bugs have forced staff at
Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire to take special measures to protect the rush matting in its Mary Queen of Scots room. Meanwhile, a carpet beetle infestation has led to curtains handdesigned by artist Rex Whistler being temporarily removed from Mottisfont Abbey in Hampshire.
And clothes moths have munched away at the tweed knickerbockers worn by playwright Shaw and displayed at his country home in Hertfordshire.
The National Trust, which lays traps to monitor insects, says the number caught has doubled from 178 in 2014 to 356 last year.
Nigel Blades, its preventive conservation adviser, said: ‘Insect damage to objects is not new. We know,
Menace: A furniture beetle for instance, that textiles and foodstuffs from as far back as ancient Egypt suffered from insect infestations. Fortunately only a tiny proportion of insect species in the UK attack or eat historic material. However a small percentage of these have the potential to become serious pests and can cause irreversible damage to collections in a short period of time.’
Silverfish are attracted to the sugars found in paper, the glues used in book bindings and the paste used to hang wallpaper. The wingless silvery-blue insects have caused significant damage to one of only a few remaining examples of the early history of Chinese wallpaper, thought to have been at the Georgian mansion Saltram since around 1750.
Other culprits include ‘woolly bears’ – carpet beetle larvae which feast on silk, wool, fur and feathers. At Mottisfont, they invaded the lining of the curtains of the Whistler Room, which the artist handpainted to look like ermine. Furniture beetle larvae have also eaten into the wooden Sleeping Lion made by sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen.
Hilary Jarvis, assistant preventive conservator for the National Trust, said: ‘We are a little concerned about the past two warm winters, as that is the time when we rely on cold temperatures to kill some of the larvae.’
‘Feast on silk, wool, fur and feathers’