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The successful delivery of this high-profile virtual conference was achieved due to the strong leadership and tireless dedication of its voluntary organising committee.
Integrated Pest Management for Collections 2021
This fully virtual conference took place on 20-22 September 2021
Proceedings of 2021: A Pest Odyssey, The Next Generation
Edited by Suzanne Ryder and Amy Crossman
Organising committee
Nigel Blades; Amy Crossman; Adrian Doyle; Kerren Harris; Yvette Harvey; Sam Higgs; Mel Houston; Dee Lauder; Armando Mendez; Suzanne Ryder; Helen Smith; Jane Thompson Webb; Alex Walker
Introduction
With contributions from 16 countries and delegates from more than 30 countries, it is evident from this volume that integrated pest management (IPM) has been adopted globally. IPM is now the accepted strategy within the cultural heritage sector to mitigate the risk posed to our unique collections by damaging pests.
The Pest Odyssey group was born out of the small number of UK IPM professionals who put together the second in this series of conferences: A Pest Odyssey 2011: 10 Years Later. The group continues to advocate, promote and advise best practice in pest management. The Pest Odyssey committee worked together, despite a global pandemic, to deliver the third in this series of conferences: A Pest Odyssey 2021: The Next Generation. This conference was the first online conference in the series and reached an even wider audience.
We continue to see IPM become embedded within our institutions and work. There have been notable changes and enormous progress since the first meeting in 2001. In 2001, beetles and anoxic environments were the main topics for discussion and in 2011, moths and risk zones dominated our thoughts. In 2021, after an unprecedented period of change in our work practices in response to restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, we see yet another evolution within pest management: there is a greater emphasis on collaboration, remote monitoring and, of course, silverfish.
As we see the distribution of pests change and the introduction of new pests, we as IPM professionals respond and develop to continue our quest to protect our cultural heritage. In a digital age we now have access to comprehensive online resources and training, remote monitoring and sophisticated software to record trap data and correlate this with environmental information to allow useful analysis and interpretation of data.
The conference proceedings from the meetings in 2001 and 2011 are widely recognised as essential text for pest management in cultural heritage institutions. This volume contains 46 contributions from across the world and we hope it will prove to be another valuable resource in the pest manager’s tool kit.
Suzanne Ryder and Amy Crossman