Those that have used them commercially, how large of a colony would I need to clean a bunch of skulls and how long would it take to clean them? It has been years since I have had them but only had a limited amount of them at one time.

I ran out of meat to feed my colony and decided to feed them some of our put up predator bait, both beaver and cat meat. I had lots on hand.

Not thinking about it at the time of the feeding, that the meat had been preserved with some SB and other preservatives. Long story short the treated preserved meat killed my entire colony in a week or so.

I would check on them every few days and you could see them moving in the media that they lived in. I began to take notice that I could no longer see the bedding moving so I dug thru some of it to learn all my beetles were dead.

Now I have dozens of skulls I need to clean. Mostly beaver and cat skulls.

A small colony consisting of 3-400 adults (plus their larvae) will clean 3-4 beaver or cat skulls in 24 hours if they're warm and active. I used to do 24 bat entire skeletons overnight. Dry the skulls/skeletons first.

Jack

Thank you Jack.

So there is a market for beaver skulls?

How easy are those beetles to take care of?

You have to find that person. I clean my skulls without beatles and have a person that gets them for Native American art

There is a market for all skulls - beaver, ermine, wolf, etc. the “problem” is the supply of skulls massively outweighs the demand

Plus, the market wants perfect - no broken bones, no missing teeth, no damage.

You are absolutely right.

off time some commercial salmon based dried dog food will keep them happy, check for preservatives on the label

if it is above 10*C/50*F outside wild wild dermestides will find the dried skulls ,but check for some of the predatory scarabides as they hunt the larvae

I’ve always wanted a colony of beetles. Have had three freezers go out this past year, now might be the time. Who can you buy them from? Lots of good info fellas, thanks.

There's a small high school in Pavillion Wyo. that makes thousands of dollars a year with their beetles. It's called "Bugs and Bones" They do a lot of skulls but mainly european mounts for hunters. I've had them do a half dozen over the years.

You found a new lucrative market for your stuff,Bob.
Kill dermestids,cochroaches termites and bedbugs,lol.

Hatchetjack1 on here has a beetle business. He's located in Washington state.

Years ago now, I had wild dermestid beetles show up in the litter, mostly manure, of my coturnix quail colonies. They do a fantastic job keeping the dry manure and feathers from building up. I used to have to clean the pens out several times a year. Now only once about every two years. The numbers viewable under the feed bowls, in cooler weather, are vast. They dig down and hide amazingly quick, when exposed. The birds congregate in the bowls and the beetles stay under then for the heat produced by the birds.

I took some to a friend of mine, who's a biologist at Wilmington College. She had previously bought beetles for the college. She could identify them as dermestid beetles, but could not tell me which of the around 1800 species of dermestids they were.

I like them because they save us a lot of work shoveling manure.

Keith

I’ve bought the starter colony of 3-400 for $50 on ebay. Keep them
at 80 degrees and fed and you’ll have thousands in a few weeks. Chest freezers work because they are insulated really well but they also will turn into an oven if the door seals. Keep them vented or add a thermostat to your heat lamp. When you need to clean out all the beetle frass, put all the meat on one side of the freezer for a week then remove the opposite half and add fresh pine chips. Then repeat the process to minimize throwing beetles away. You’ll be any some ventilation in your tank, especially in the humid summers of PA to keep the moisture down. Out here I never had that issue and gave them a few sprays of water every other day with a mister.

I preferred using a large circular horse trough for the tank with a ply wood lid that has an access door. Then I’d set it on a piece of blueboard and wrap the sides in fiberglass to make the heater more efficient. Very few elk fit into a chest freezer so it was nice to be able to just drop an elk in.

Yes Boco, I now know what to use on other pests. Might become a good sideline gig for us. It was a costly mistake for sure. I miss them now.

Is it a concern if you kept these beetles in the same building as fur that you have put up? I've thought about trying some of these beetles but didn't want to have them get into my other stuff.

You would definitely be running a serious risk and by the time you knew you had a problem, the damage would already be done.

They will even ruin tanned pelts or taxi mounts if they get in them.

You certainly need to have proper housing containments for them. I used a large plastic packer for my last colony with a vented sealed lid. They can't climb up anything smoothe at least I never had that happen to my knowledge. Some use an old aquarium tank for containment housing old bath tubs or feed tubs etc.

They take flight besides the crawling just be warned, as you check the chambers
anything over 50F