Dermistid beetles

[Krico]

Got a bison skull to do. Not sure I feel like doing all the work involved in boiling. Anyone know of a beetle colony in the northern 2/3rds of the province? Kamloops and north basically...

[DartNorth]

Try one of the colleges or universities. Had a friend give his skull to the local college here (Prince Rupert) and the bugs did a great job. And was fast.
i bet it will look awesome when its done.

[Jagermeister]

There was a guy in Kamloops. I will try to find a contact # for you.

[Wild Images]

Look in the regs, there is a guy in Salmon Arm

[Montana]

You can buy the beetles on ebay for about $30. I got a starter kit off ebay last spring and have cleaned an elk skull and a couple deer skulls. They are amazing. I tossed in a deer head from a buck I found last fall......hide and all and they cleaned every speck of hide, hair, and flesh off of it. Here's the elk skull the beetles cleaned... I've not bleached it...this is how it looks after the beetles finished.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v285/stonebroke/ElkRack-Augusts62013003_zps0d274ca3.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/stonebroke/media/ElkRack-Augusts62013003_zps0d274ca3.jpg.html)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v285/stonebroke/ElkRack-Augusts62013006_zps5bd1820d.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/stonebroke/media/ElkRack-Augusts62013006_zps5bd1820d.jpg.html)

[Krico]

Very cool Montana. What kind of container do you need to house them in to do their dirty work?

[ncurrie]

That is very cool!

[Darksith]

very nice...also curious as to how you stick an elk head and antlers into a container

[Montana]

I keep them in a plastic tube with a lid (holes punched in the top for ventilation) when they aren't working. I feed them dried meat, but have discovered they will eat dry dog food also. They need humidity (I just keep a damp piece of cardboard in the container) and something to lay eggs in. I use chunks of old styrofoam insulation..

For the elk head I took a 55 gallon garbage can and put gravel in the bottom.. I put in enough so that the skull could rest on the gravel (about 1/2 full). then I put the beetles in with some styrofoam, etc. and let them go to work. After they have cleaned the skull you have to make sure all of the beetles are removed. Some people use alcohol to kill any remaining beetles. I put the skull in a plastic swimming pool (far away from the house!!!) and filled it with water and drowned them out.. It took a couple of days.. They are pretty good swimmers!!!


Do not do this in your house or garage as some beetles will crawl out!!! I have an old shed behind the house that I use. If these beetles get loose around mounted heads they will eat the hide, so be careful where you use them!!! It's amazing how they will clean a skull...

If anyone decides to try this, there is a lot of information on the internet on how to keep them, use them, treat the skulls, etc.. The started kit cost me about $30 off ebay, but the people around here who charge to bleach skulls get $125 and up to clean an elk skull. I had a couple other skulls I wanted to clean, so thought I'd try the beetles myself. I'm going caribou hunting in a couple of weeks and assuming the Hunting God smiles on me, I want to do a European mount if I manage to kill something..

Note: if you use the beetles on a bear or lion skull you will have to degrease the skull after the beetles are done, which can take several weeks or even months from what I've read as they have a lot of grease in their skulls. Deer, elk, etc. should be degreased also but it only takes a day and from what I've seen probably isn't necessary. It depends on how white you want the skull. To get a snowwhite skull it needs to be degreased and then bleached... Taxidermist supply houses sell these products.

[358mag]

Please don't use " Bleach" to whiten your skulls as bleach with brake down the bones and make them soft and rotten . after your de-grease your skull rise it real good with warm water then air dry it off and soak it in 10-20% of Hydrogen Peroxide, you will be way more happier with the result's.

[MFERGIE]

X2
Bleaching is only a term for whitening, hydrogen peroxide is the stuff to use. More important than whitening is degreasing and a bison skull done properly is going to take a good amount of time to degrease. Every skull is different but a bison skull will probably take 2-3 months to degrease before you whiten it. I would look into slipping the horn sheaths off to avoid any nasty rotten smells or grease down the road.