Hungary: Destructive bug infestation threatens historic 1,000-year-old book collection

FOX

Thousands of historic books are in jeopardy over a massive bug infestation that could annihilate centuries-long of historical records.

The Pannonhalma Archabbey in Hungary is a Benedictine monastery that is working to save books from drugstore beetles, according to The Associated Press (AP).

About 100,000 handbound books are being removed by restoration workers to start a disinfection process that would kill any bugs that have nested in the pages. more

9 Comments on Hungary: Destructive bug infestation threatens historic 1,000-year-old book collection

  1. That’s OK, its not like the kids will let themselves be exposed to any idea thats not their own anyway. They may as well be bug food because the next generation will not use them for anything else.

    But no one in future will read of OUR time. All of OUR history is on digital media which will not survive a hundred years.

    Go try to read a WordPerfect document or a spreadsheet made in DbaseIII Plus NOW that was created with a DOS machine and stored on a 5 1/4″ floppy if you want to prove me wrong.

    …besides, its not like the “history” we write today is particuarly reliable.

    History has, eh, historically been written by the winners, it has been said.

    But at least THEN it wasnt being revised and cancelled and faked every minute of every hour of every day as it is now…

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  2. Drug store beetles. Weird name that brings a lot of questions to my empty mind: Is that where they hang out waiting for a ride to a library. Do they heckle customers as they hang around?

    Does the Monastery have a drug store nearby?

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  3. Had earwigs in the document archives at a well known aerospace manufacturer in the Pacific Northwest. They brought in refrigerator vans loaded the docs and froze them for a few days.

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