Dermestid Beetles for Skull and Skeleton CleaningIf you are creating a European mount of a skull, especially one with antlers, you may want to consider Dermestid beetles as an alternative to the tedious and unpleasant process of boiling and manually removing hide and tissue from the skull. Antlers may be discolored by boiling water or hydrogen peroxide, and even a bird or small animal skull with no antlers can be quite a challenge to properly clean for a European mount display. Even very small tissue residue can create quite an unpleasant smell, and can attract damaging pests.
Dermestid beetles (Dermestes maculatus) are also called carpet beetles, skin or hide beetles, and larder beetles. They are late-stage carrion feeders, typically eating the parts of dead animals left behind by carnivores and vultures. In taxidermy and in museums, their ability to pick a skull or skeleton completely clean of any soft tissue is very useful in the preservation process. The beetles will not eat or damage bone, though they will eat cartilage and connective tissue once everything else is gone. Bones cleaned by Dermestid beetles are not subject to the harsh process of boiling, scraping, picking, and chemically cleaning and sterilizing that can cause damage and/or discoloration. Once the beetles have done their work, only pure, white bone will remain, with no staining and no scratch marks or breakage from tools.
Breeding and caring for a Dermestid Beetle colonyYou can grow a dermestid beetle colony in an old aquarium, refrigerator or cooler, but make sure they have some ventilation and also that they cannot escape. The larvae will need something into which they can burrow to pupate, and most people use foam blocks or pieces of corrugated cardboard. The environment should be slightly moist and warm, so keep the container in a warm place and spray with a small amount of mist occasionally if it seems too dry. Too little moisture will slow down colony eating and growth, while too much can lead to troubles from mites and/or mold fungus, with potentially disastrous results for the dermestid beetles.
Dermestid beetles prefer "moist-dry" food sources. That oxymoronic description just means dermestid beetles want to eat jerky, not beef. In practical terms for taxidermists and museum researchers, this means that if you can remove tissue from a skull before handing it to the beetles, you should do so, and the remaining tissue should be the consistency of beef jerky. Once the beetles have thoroughly cleaned a skull, it is cleaned, degreased and whitened further in preparation for a European mount. If securing it to a plaque for wall mounting, a belt sander can be used to create a flat area that will be flush with the mounting board surface.
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