I was interested in trying to build a legit setup for skulls and bones. Does anyone have them, and what suggestions can you give for keeping a healthy colony?

I have dermestid beetles in my quail colonies and dead barrels. In the quail colonies they save me a tremendous amount of work. I used to have to shovel them out about twice a year and since the beetles showed up, it's only every 2 or 3 years, because of all the waste they eat. In hot weather, there are a great many thousands, if not millions. There's a lot of species of dermestid beetles native to the US and I don't know which species they are, or if they are a better one or not for cleaning skeletons. In the dead barrels they eat feathers, fur, flesh and all. They just showed up too. I'm not sure if they are the same species as the other ones. They just leave the bones. Darkling beetles (millworms) and soldier flies also appeared on their own. They both save me a lot of work too. I used millworms to clean skulls a lot back in the nineties. The soldier fly larva eat dog poop amazingly fast when the weather is hot.

Keith

I suppose you feed them all year. I am in NC too, so if you start a colony, let me know. I have one mount that was cleaned with beetles.The group I hunt with just buries the head except for the antlers, then covers it with a barrel. A year later, the head gets dug up and finished. Typically, a water hose does the cleaning after a year in the soil with the ants.

Question for anyone: What would happen if I buried a skull on a fire ant hill? Think they would clean it? We are seeing more fire ants every year.

I don’t have them anymore, but kept a colony for a couple years. I supplied a university biologist with skulls for a couple years for classes and he gave me extra beetles. Learned a lot from him. I started out with a 20 gallon plastic tote, cotton balls for bedding. Clean as much meat off as you can and remove eyes and brain. Use a styrofoam tray to place skull onto. Leave a fan running on it for 24-48 hours to dry down before placing with the beetles. It will really reduce odor and potential rot by doing so. Place tray and skull into the tote. Do the best you can keep the bedding away from the meat.

Room temperature or a little warmer is good to keep them active and reproducing. I had a batch go dormant in my basement because they got too cool. Spritz the tray and/or bedding with some water every couple days if there isn’t any moisture lets in the meat.

Limit the amount of feed for them, if they have too much to eat for the colony size, you’ll end up with stinky skulls with uncleaned nasal cavities. The fresher the meat the better. Can feed them any raw meat trimmings to keep them going between skulls. I’ve seen A big colony clean a deer head in 2-3 days. They can eat a lot.

After a while you may need to add more cotton bedding. If it gets soiled or smells like ammonia, it’s time to replace.
Don’t throw away the old bedding. You want to collect all the life cycle stages out of it if possible. Fresh meat will bring them out. A piece of bologna on a lid could catch a couple hundred beetles at a time. Then transfer to a new bin. Or shake the bedding into a new bin and pick out beetles. That’s the easiest method but you’ll transfer more debris into the clean tote. 2 or 3 totes in rotation worked well for me.


It’s amazing how many beetles and larvae can hide in a skull. When it’s done, gently shake out bugs and place in a new tote. They will continue coming out .fresh meat will help pull them out over the next couple days.

Degrease in dawn and then soak in peroxide for a couple days . Rinse, dry, then done.