Given an average Mule Deer skull, how long does it take for these critters to get the job done? Approx how many are needed, would 25-30 do it? Do you have to clean anything off before you put the skull in or do they eat it all? Just wondering if they are worth the trouble, the skulls seem to look very good.
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25 - 30 might do a mouse or squirrel up nicely for you. Im not being sarcastic by the way - it takes hundreds, even thousands of bugs and larvae at various stages to clean larger items. the couple dozen is just a starter mix - it takes a while (2 - 5 months) to build up a colony large enough to do actual work with.
Look up 'maceration' in the archives - it's far easier than dealing with all the climatic conditions important to succesful dermestic husbandry... requires no special equipment (just a bucket and some water) and actually gets the bone more throroughly cleaned than dermestids alone. Remove most of the flesh, as well as the brain and eyes - then proceed with cold water maceration, followed by degreasing and if you want - whitening.
a hot culture (about 6 months) they will clean a skull like that in 2-4 days. You will still need to remove as much flesh as you can using a scalpel, and remove the brain and eyes. It also has to be dried to jerky consistency and maintain temperature and humidity levels. It is a lot of work. My bugs are now able to eat a whole large jack rabbit after it has been dried (w/o removing any flesh) in about two days.