Re: ARACHNOPHOBIA and STUFF

Jim Croft (jrc@anbg.gov.au)
Fri, 30 Jul 1993 08:25:25 +1000 (EST)

> a while, so they sat in their playwood case. When she took them
> out she found they were inhabited by miniscule, pale white,
> crawling bugs. They were about 1/2 the size of a rice grain.
> Here first terrifying thought was, "termites!". After she calmed
> down however I suggest that she call our local county agriculture
> board. Thus began her odyssey to ID the bugs. Before it was over
> she'd mailed some bugs in a film can to the UC Berkeley entomological
> department. They made positive the tentative ID from the county
> Ag. people: psocids. Gretchen was greatly relieved that they

psochids are common beasts - but I would not go so far as to call them
pests. We have outbreaks in our herbarium collection from time to time.
They live off mould spores and stuff. We have found reducing the
humidity reduced the occurence of psochids. They do not seem to do any
damage to the specimens - just give you a shock as they crawl across the
microscope field of view. In the case of bagpipes, washing out whatever
the bag is called would be sufficient - stopping the hot and sweaty
breathing is probably not practicable.

jim
___________________________________________________________________________
Jim Croft [Herbarium CBG] internet: jrc@anbg.gov.au
Australian National Botanic Gardens voice: +61-6-2509 490
GPO Box 1777, Canberra, ACT 2601, AUSTRALIA fax: +61-6-2509 599
______Biodiversity Directorate, Australian Nature Conservation Agency______