Fright At The Museum...Pests Take Over

The British Museum is battling an insect invasion after the absence of visitors in lockdown created the perfect conditions for pests.

- Steph Spyro

And curators fear birds and rats could also put the museum’s priceless artefacts at risk.

Dust, usually unable to settle thanks to the tramping feet of visitors, is making an ideal environment for beetles, woodworm and moth larvae.

So the museum has hired a pest manager to secure its extraordinary collections – in excess of eight million objects spanning two million years of human history.