Kicker: The beetle battle

NICK EICHER, HOST: Most libraries encounter only bookworms.

Pannonhalma Abbey in Hungary has a different issue: Book beetles. Quite literally, tiny bugs chowing down on thousand-year-old books.

ILONA ÁSVÁNYI (LIBRARY DIRECTOR): [Speaking Hungarian] Amikor meglátok egy könyvet, amit megrágott egy bogár… [Translation: “Each time I see a volume riddled with holes, a little piece of culture feels lost.”]

EICHER: That’s the library director lamenting things. She’s saying here, Every time I see a volume riddled with holes … a piece of culture is lost.

She’s right. These are irreplaceable, hand-bound books.

ZSÓFIA HAJDU (CHIEF RESTORER): [Speaking Hungarian] Ez egy előrehaladott rovarfertőzéiKs… [Translation: “The infestation is so advanced we have to treat the entire collection at once.”]

EICHER: That is the chief book restorer and beetle assassin … my term.

She’s telling why they’re sealing the infested books in bags … squeezing the oxygen out … and letting nitrogen finish up.

Call it the ultimate silent reading room.

No air and pretty soon no beetles.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

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