I have been using beetles for about a year on skulls and it seems like the beetles take quite a while to clean the skulls. I started with two large cultures from CT. Valley, I keep an eye on the temp., humidity, etc., and clean and dry the skulls well before putting them in. It has been taking 6-8 weeks. My culture looks very healthy and I always see lots of bugs in there. I recently have been overwelmed with the amount of skulls coming in so I ordered 4 more cultures. 3 went into a new tank. One went into my old to hopefully speed it up. How long should it take for a deer skull or bear skull to be cleaned and what else could I check? The skulls that have come out are great, but I hear some people saying they do three skulls a week.
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If your bugs are taking more than 2-3 days to clean a deer they are not a large enough colony. Not sure what you could be possibly be doing wrong, bugs multiply at a tremendous rate in a year. My bugs clean a large grizzly every 3 days and a black bear in 2, deer are really fast, 2 days max. In a year there should be thousands of bugs in the colony.
I don't know what else to do. The 6-8 weeks is for a large boar skull. In the new tank I put in a deer skull. The tank is lined with wood shavings. I have a heating pad for reptiles under the tank along with a heat rock in the big one. I put thermonitors in and they range from 66-80F. In the summer the temp. is a little hot as it probably gets up to 90, but the bugs don't look like they mind. Any ideas?
a nesting box for the bugs as yet......doesn't sound like it. If you haven't email me directly or call me and I'll share the info with you.
425-831-6273
a nesting box for the bugs as yet......doesn't sound like it. If you haven't email me directly or call me and I'll share the info with you.
425-831-6273.
Probably to speed things up and to also share the info on the forum. You need to take some galvanized hardware cloth, 1/4" mesh or smaller and make a wire tube about 18 inches long and four inches across the round end (diameter). Stuff loosely with raw cotton, called cotton batting, sold by Van Dykes. This makes a breeding nesting box and hidey hole for the bugs......have you done this already?.
Rather than actually constructing a nesting box I simply use saw dust and layers of cotton batting as the whole floor in my bug containers. This in addition to canvas drop cloths I use to cover the heads allows for pupating and egg laying. Either way will work fine, Ill admit I"m just too lazy to make 10 nesting boxes, one for each colony.
In addition to the nesting box you may find it useful to place the cleaned head in a 5 gallon bucket. This allows the hundreds of bugs in the skull to abandon ship. I usually place bear heads after bugging in clean 5 gallon buckets for a couple of days, in an area much cooler than the bug containers. The cool air causes the bugs to abandon the skull in the search for a warmer environment; they end up in lethargic piles in the bottom of the bucket. By using clean slick buckets or metal ones they can"t crawl out, I use brand new buckets for this purpose. I pick up the skull, brush the bugs off with a paint brush, into the same bucket, and then dump them back into the colony. You will be very surprised about the amount of bugs in the bucket. I can create an entire new colony in a couple of weeks (as opposed to 3 months or more) by simply taking all ìextraî bugs from this process and placing them in a new container.
I had the same problem. I tried everything, frome changing the humidity to the temp., At the world show I talked with the guys from skulls international (great guys) and asked if I was misting them. When I got home and started misting with water my colony exploded. 3-4 sprays every other day. Even though you dry the skull before putting it in the beetles, dont worry about the water getting on it. Also did you put a couple inches of corragated cardboard on the bottom? It gives the a place to breed and burrow. If you want to go into further discusion e-mail me and I will give you my phone #. Also, my colony is so hot I can barely keep them fed. Does any one out there need skulls done? I never thought about wholesaling because of the amount that do already. I have gotten into skeletal articulation, and if you want to talk to the master, talk with Storm Amacher from Remains to be seen. I spoke with her at the national show and she very helpful and friendly.
I had the same problem. I tried everything, frome changing the humidity to the temp., At the world show I talked with the guys from skulls international (great guys) and they asked if I was misting them. When I got home and started misting with water my colony exploded. 3-4 sprays every other day. Even though you dry the skull before putting it in the beetles, dont worry about the water getting on it. Also did you put a couple inches of corragated cardboard on the bottom? It gives the a place to breed and burrow. If you want to go into further discusion e-mail me and I will give you my phone #. Also, my colony is so hot I can barely keep them fed. Does any one out there need skulls done? I never thought about wholesaling because of the amount that do already. I have gotten into skeletal articulation, and if you want to talk to the master, talk with Storm Amacher from Remains to be seen. I spoke with her at the national show and she very helpful and friendly.
Thanks for the tips. I have been misting them. I do not have a nesting box unless you consider the styrofoam I put in for them to pulpate in or the wood chips in the bottom of the container. I think maybe that is what I need. It sounds like some people use cardboard on the bottom and others use a wire tube with cotton. I will try one and get back to you in a few weeks to a few months. I will also try the bucket idea to catch the buggers holding out. I usually lose some that way and I don't like losing bugs when I don't seem to have any to spare. Thanks again for such great advice. If anyone has more advice feel free to email me.
Scott
I would be interested in hearing more about this "Nesting Box." I have a cougar skull that has been in my beetles since last June. They've made some progress but have yet to finish. Guess they don't like it. I have a fresh deer in there now and their almost finished with it and it has been 6 days. Recently they completely cleaned a coyote in less than 2 days?
I have a box that is approximately 22 inches front to back, 40 inches long, and 30 inches tall. I have a blue reptile light inside and about 2 inches of pine wood shavings. They seem to be doing fine, but they sure dislike that cougar. Thanks.
MS
Buzzi,
This weekend I got the nesting box completed. Thanks for the info on how to do it. I did it exactly like you said except I couldn't find raw cotton so I got some cotton batting with a little bit of polyester fibers in it (supposed to strengthen it). Put the nests in with the bugs yesterday. Hopefully that will speed things up. Today I just got 4 more heads and spent 3 hours cleaning most of the meat off of two of them before it got too dark. Went through a few scalpels, but it was kind of theraputic being outside on a nice day listing to the radio. Thanks again.
Scott