Dermisteds and taxidermy

[NOAH@aarrkk]

I'm assuming that at least some of you here are taxidermists.  I've been tempted to get beetles to clean some skulls but have the fear of the beetles getting into my taxidermy collection.  What/how do you alleviate this concern?  Any problems yet?

thanks,
jerry

[coyote]

I prevent this from happening by keeping the beetles in a shed out back designed and built just for skull cleaning. They're no where near my shop and I don't have to worry about any mishaps, or accidents happening. You really should never keep them near your's or any customer mounts, skins or anything that will cuase you a headache down the road. Accident do and will happen. So plan out what you're going to do prior to setting them up.

  Coyote

[RD Martin]

+ 1 on Coyote post. Impossible to keep them from escaping. Its a fine line to maintain a "hot" colony with warn temps & humidity and not have flyers. Not to mention removing specimens from the tanks and loose tiny, tiny, tiny little baby beetles. They are soooo cute. LOL!
SERPARATE BUILDING!

[Tim McLagan]

Separate building for sure, however I have had some hitch hikers on my clothes, back in the shop. Haven't had any problems yet though. Ü

[Deerman]

I was going to try to keep some in my garage but it is connected to my shop. Not a good idea is it?

[joeym]

I have beetles in a separate building for at least two reasons...fear of getting them into mounted specimens and smell.  It doesn't take that much space...I house my colonies in  an 8 x 8 insulated utility building.  It is heated and cooled.

[coyote]

All in all, I never had any so called hitch hikers or any beetles that attached then self to me or my clothing. All my beetles are in aquariums and or fiberglass tanks, and I have never had any follow me out of the shed. After the skull, and or bones are finished. They're hosed down, degreased, then bleached. There never has been a problem with beetles coming outside of the shed I keep them in.

  Coyote

[Tim McLagan]

The reason for hitch hikers, my shed is 8X12, and I do a lot of large elk, I use a livestock water tank to keep the beetles in, and with the large antlers I don't cover them. There are dermestid beetles in the wild here, so it doesn't really matter if a few escape now and then. They are only ferocious eaters under the perfect environment.

[RD Martin]

On the hitch hikers. My eyes aren't that good. When the elk ivories fall out I pull them from the tank and put in a deep plastic dish. Can't believe how small and how many hatchlings come out for a couple of days. I would have to have Superman vision to spot these tiny little crawlers on my clothes. They would probably die before their next meal but makes you wonder when you do find one where they are not supposed to be. I also have a small separate building but hose with HOT water in another area.

[Wolf]

Y'all are going to hate me... but I keep my beetles in the garage, where I have my shop... that is connected to my house.  I have never had an ounce of trouble from dermestids.  I'd like to have a separate building just for the convenience of space and to have an area set up for skull and skeleton work aside from taxidermy.  It would bonus in the fact that I can control the smell better (while I can't smell rotten flesh or dermestid frass, I know other people can).  But another building will have to wait until I move.

I maintain hot colonies via sheer numbers and over feeding the darn things rather than starving them.  In the heat of summer (100+ degrees in TX) I will get fliers as the air conditioner can't keep it below 85 degrees in the garage without stressing the power bill and freezing the inside of the house.  To combat this, I secure the lids.  This time of year, I have colonies with open lids on the tanks.  I have escapees in the garage, but they never bother my stuff, they prefer to migrate to the pile of de-fleshed carcasses laying in a pile awaiting there turns in the beetle tank.  So the escapees generally end up back where they started from, as well as any young they have spawned while free.  They also migrate to the garbage can, where meat is usually abundant sooner or later.

The only dermestids I have found in the house are wild adult beetles from the great outdoors (they look different even from the wild ones I have bred in captivity amazingly; more robust, and colorful.  They turn black in the first generation of tank life.)  Now my finished mounts reside in the house, and my works in progress don't lie around on ground zero in beetle range, so I don't give them easy access to my taxidermy.  They don't nest in my forms, though the chew up and breed in foam I throw in the tanks.  I don't regulate the humidity, mist my beetles or maintain temp past whatever the current room temp is.

The only bug trouble I have had in mounts is carpet beetles (not dermestid, smaller and peskier) destroyed a squirrel mount I had, and the whole lot of them died a slow and painful death!  Occasionally coffin flies (like fruit flies) were trouble on DP skins if I didn't clean the skin properly, but as my fleshing method improved the fly trouble ceased.  Dermestids in general prefer fresh meat, but will eat dried meat as they are slow getting to dead animals in the wild, and wait for fly maggots to finish and move out.  I have thrown tanned hides in my tanks and the beetles ignore them, except maybe to lay the eggs in the fur.  Beetles don't eat feathers and fur unless they have nothing better to chew on.  And from what I have seen, don't like gnawing on hard deer hide if they have a choice.  The problem with beetles in a taxidermy studio, and museum collection arises when the beetle/larva is starving to death and there is nothing else of substance to snack on, at that point they will even munch on insecticide covered specimens if no alternative can be found.  They will eat horn sheaths and hooves pretty readily, and if truly starving they will start crewing away at antler burrs; I didn't leave the deer skull in the tank to see if they would have eaten it clean through.

I don't have any fears of beetles in my taxidermy, and have had my set up as it is for over 4 years.  There are some true concerns with dermestids getting ahold of mounts, but so long as the beetles are "happy" they couldn't care less about a piece of dried hide, with feathers or fur.  That's my 2 cents. 

Later,
Wolf