im in florida and i have heard from several fellow hunters that you can de-flesh a skin by letting the fire ants do the work....is this true? Seems to good to be true...
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You sure they didnt say skull?!
im sure. do you know the answer or not?
....Too good to be true......It probably is! Use your new found knowledge and use the SEARCH button.
I think that in the 40+ years that I have been doing this, I would have heard about this "idea" by now. But hey, it's 24 degrees out and there's 6" of snow on the ground. Where would I find some fire ants to give this a try?
We do get sarcastic here. Especially when the "newbies" want to know how to do something "easier" or "cheaper" instead of doing it RIGHT.
Listen to Old Fart, he gives some good sound advice. While many types of insects and insect larva are used to clean skulls and bones, it's doubtful they would give you the desired effect on a hide or cape that you planned on using. While Im sure that the fire ants would welcome any type on animal tissue that you offered, the downside is that they wouldn't differentiate between what was "good" and what was "waste", likely destroying your hide. My guess is that you either heard this little tidbit from someone who flat out, didnt know what they were talking about, or they passed on bad info to you, from another source.Either way, stick to the tried and true methods of manually fleshing your hides, and you won't be dissappointed. Good luck.
Its great for cleaning skulls and bones, skins will be eaten up and the hair will slip.
thanks ...thats what i figured....but hey old fart if you want me to mail you some id be delighted....haha....then you could send me some snow.....i want to try to learn the right way.....i scraped it and scraped and scraped.....and......today....
I'm in Central TX where we have a neverending supply of fire ants....I will be glad to send you some to try :) As for me, I dont want to encourage them to hang around any more than they already do...Im gonna try out my new fleshing knife instead :)
but I don't think it would hurt to try. just for the fun of it if nothing else. I have also (don't remember where) heard this. If you do try it i would just use a small not very valuable skin to test it. if you do post how it turned out!