Beetle infestation threatening thousands of ancient books in Hungary's oldest library

Tens of thousands of centuries-old books are in jeopardy of being destroyed due to a beetle infestation. 

Books at the Pannonhalma Archabbey in Hungary are being taken off shelves in an effort to save them from drugstore beetles, also known as the bread beetles.

They have been found in a section of the library housing around a quarter of the abbey's 400,000 volumes.

What they're saying:

"This is an advanced insect infestation which has been detected in several parts of the library, so the entire collection is classified as infected and must be treated all at the same time," said Zsófia Edit Hajdu, the chief restorer on the project. "We've never encountered such a degree of infection before."

When did the infestation happen?

The backstory:

The beetle invasion was first detected during a routine library cleaning.

Employees noticed unusual layers of dust on the shelves and then saw that holes had been burrowed into some of the book spines. Upon opening the volumes, burrow holes could be seen in the paper where the beetles chewed through.

The abbey believes the effects of climate change played a role in spurring the beetle infestation as average temperatures rise rapidly in Hungary.

What's next:

To kill the beetles, the crates of books are being placed into tall, hermetically sealed plastic sacks from which all oxygen is removed. After six weeks in the pure nitrogen environment, the abbey hopes all the beetles will be destroyed.

Before being reshelved, each book will be individually inspected and vacuumed. Any book damaged by the pests will be set aside for later restoration work.

The abbey hopes to reopen the library at the beginning of next year.

What is the Pannonhalma Archabbey?

Dig deeper:

The abbey at Pannonhalma was founded in 996, four years before the establishment of the Kingdom of Hungary. Sitting upon a tall hill in northwestern Hungary, the abbey houses the country's oldest collection of books, as well as many of its earliest and most important written records.

For over 1,000 years, the abbey has been among the most prominent religious and cultural sites in Hungary and all of Central Europe, surviving centuries of wars and foreign incursions such as the Ottoman invasion and occupation of Hungary in the 16th century.