The Florida Museum of Natural History will be temporarily closed.
The fumigation of the museum is routine to make sure there are no pests in the museum that could damage the collections, said Jaret Daniels, the associate curator and Lepidoptera program director. The museum will be closed today, Tuesday and Feb. 22-24.
The last fumigation was during Thanksgiving Break in 2008, Daniels said. The museum operates on UF’s academic calendar, so it didn’t have to close.
During the fumigation, the open-air live butterfly and moth exhibit will be sealed off. After chemicals are released, the building will be aired out.
Rudolf Scheffrahn, a UF professor of entomology, said museums in warmer climates can become easily infested.
The fumigation process will kill any living thing exposed to the chemicals used, he said. If the butterflies or moths were exposed, they could die.
Bob Smith, a 55-year-old Gainesville resident, said he and his brother visit the museum twice a year.
“They always have something different,” Smith said.
He said he wasn’t worried about the fumigations and trusted the museum to protect its collections.
While the museum is closed, it will have “pop-up” exhibits outside for those who are interested, said Paul Ramey, the museum’s assistant director of marketing and public relations. It will include a butterfly rainforest and a first colony exhibit, showing ancient man-made tools and pottery fragments.
He said he is confident the fumigation will go well.
“The collection is basically priceless,” he said.
