I have a racoon head in a cage and i am going to leave it outside to let insects clean it. I would like to know if it is better to place the head on the ground or put it on a stand.
I would leave it in the cage and bury it.
Since you have already chosen your method of cleaning I would suggest that you leave it on the ground surface, BUT be very careful of dogs, raccoons, weasels, small kids, etc.. While allowing mother nature to clean your skeleton, you have little control over the species of organism that comes to consume the meat of your head. First, I would hope that you skinned the head, because it would allow quicker access to the meat by the carrion beetles, wasps, bees, flies etc.. Within a day the head should be coated with all sorts of invertebrates, and within a week to ten days, the maggots and larvae of various beetles should have pretty much eaten most of the meat up and the stink should have begun to dissipate. If you hang the skull in a tree, a number of maggots and the like, will fall off and the smell will carry further. Also, birds which come to work on the screen enclosure will have access to the bottom of the cage. If the cage is on the ground, with a large rock to hold it down, birds would have no access to the head.
Moisture should also be kept reasonably high. If the skull would completely dry out, many of the maggots would die and the cleaning would be slowed down much more. Also, since one of the advantages of using this method, is that bacteria and other microbes can act on the skull and begin the degreasing of the bone itself. Oxygen is in high supply, and you can periodically mist the skull to keep it juicy. Another advantage is that on the ground if teeth fall out in the likelihood of lose is reduced as opposed to dropping from the top of a tree, or burying (unless you use a fine mesh bag)
The disadvantages of burying the skull is that it takes much longer to clean, and the soil often discolors the bone material to the point that peroxide will not even clean it up. If the skull is above ground, it has the sun to begin to bleach it white.
When the skull is reasonably clean, buy some store ammonia (clear ammonia) and soak the skull in it to kill all bacteria and other organisms. Soak it for a week or so, and change solutions on a regular basis until it is not leaching out color into the solution, then peroxide it if you wish and dry slowly in a humid environment to lessen the chance of tooth cracking.
While I quit cleaning skulls with flies about 25 years ago, this method will produce a servicable specimen.
Good Luck
Thank you all for your help, i really appreciate it