Skull in an ant bed

[luciengwin4]

Has anyone ever tried to clean a skull by putting it in an ant bed? I had an extra skull and a huge ant bed out beside my shop so I thought I would give it a try. I would be interested to hear from anyone who has tried this.

[Rhasputin]

Yes people have tried it.

No it won't do you any good.

[Toxic]

Takes to long, will get mineral stains on it that will not come out, and you stand the chance of some animal dragging it off

[Sea Wolf]

It's a lazy way to do things and makes a very poor product. As Toxic said, the result is poor and you risk losing parts of it or the whole thing. If you want to just let something sit out and rot away do it for fun. But it is not what someone who cares about the specimen would do.

You can try. but don't expect much.

[joeym]

In very hot weather, fire ants will clean a skull in a week or so.  You must put a heavy cage over it to keep critters from digging it up and carrying it off.  If you live in a red dirt area, you will have a red-stained skull that it difficult to get white again.  Most of the time, you end up with a mess, or a lost skull.  I tried it before I got dermestids, with mixed results.  The logistics of cleaning dozens of skulls annually this way is impossible.