Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1993, Page 69

PESTS RECORDED IN THE FAROEISLANDS, 1986-1992
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Description of the most common pests
in the Faroes
1. Pests damaging buildings, household
goods, books and clothes
The webbing or clothes moth. Tineola
bisselliella, is not common in the Faroes. It
has only been recorded once, which is for-
tunate in a country with a large production
of wool.
The only example of importance belong-
ing to this group is the wood-boring beetle.
Anobium punctatum (Fig. 2), with 52 re-
cords (14.6%). It has a peak season from
June to October, culminating in July (Fig.
3). The newly hatched adults fly out of the
timber to mate and lay their eggs over a
brief period of a couple of weeks. The eggs
are often laid in the holes bored by the adult
beetles, and when the larvae appear after a
few weeks, they enter the timber where
they live for the next 2 to 3 years. The rest
of the year the adult beetles can be found
dead on the floor, under the roof or on cellar
windowsills.
Of other animals which cause damage to
houses, only a few have been recorded,
such as house longhorn beetle. Hylotrupes
bajulus, (1 record), bark borer beetle.
Ernobius mollis, (2 records), oak longhom.
Phymatodes testaceus, (1 record), pinhole
borer beetle. Xyloterus lineatus (1 record).
2. Pests eating food supplies
A special Faroese phenomenon is the mites
which live on the wind-dried legs of lamb,
skerpikjøt. These mites do not eat the meat,
rather it is the mould or fungi which is the
meat-eater. Normally the special shed in
which the meat is dried, known as hjallur,
Fig. 7. The dark flour beetle, Tribolium destructor.
Total length: 5-6 mm.
Mynd 7.Tjøruklukka, Tribolium destructor. Longd: 5-6
mm.
Fig. 8. A silverfish, Lespisma saccharina. Total
length: 10-12 mm.
Mynd 8.Silvurskottur, Lespisma saccharina. Longd:
10-12 mm.
is cleaned thoroughly before the slaught-
ered lambs are hung to dry in October.
Sometimes after cleaning the sheds, re-
mains from the previous year may be left,
and these can be the origin of “living dust”,
containing thousands of mites. The mite
from the Faroese skerpikjøt is the species
Tyrophagus palmarum (Fig. 4). Related
species, T. longior and Glycyphages