SCRIDER1

I noticed some small moths in my home office a couple of weeks ago and again last night near one of my mounts. I looked closer and realized there were a dozen or more of them and they are attacking my mounts!! There's some places where the hair is turning loose. What do I do???

Thanks in advance...

Tree climber

fog it with a fly spray.don't spray it right on the mount,just fog it by in several directions.
the foggers you get and set off and leave the house works also.just set it off and close the door for a couple hrs.

what kind of mount.it may be to late to save it if they are real bad. if the mt. was done corectly they shouldn't get in it.call the person that did it and ask????

M.Magis

I don't agree that the bugs are there because it was mounted incorrectly. Unless treated regularly, there's no way to insure that bugs won't find a mount, no matter how it was done.

Tree climber

each to his or her own.

I have mt's. that are 25 years old and never been treated with anything and have never had any bugs or anything else. when I mounted them,I did everything right.

if it is a bird and not preserved correcly the feathers have liquid in the feather base that will atract insects if not treated right.moths are attracted to birds more than deer and other hair covered animals.

did you get them out? what were they in?

M.Magis

I'm not saying bugs WILL find a mount, but if they do, they CAN eat it, tanned or not. The key is to not attract them in the first place, and a mount usually isn't why they're there to begin with, unless someone left a bunch of tissue behind.

Bill Yox

When moths are present, they can find the smallest amount of protien in the first layer of the skin, and the larvae etch along this layer, which detaches the hair in mats or a clump. Telltale signs are, from the obvious, down to small coccoons that look like rice crispies in the hair, and also small worm like larvae that might drop off the mount prematurely. These moths are present in most homes, good mounts, bad mounts, or no mounts. Same goes for the dermestid beetles and larvae. Im always told the customers dont have them, it must have been some old mount they acquired early on. Not so. Turkey fans with all those spider webs and those curly shells underneath them? Dermestids. Some old dog food from a bag that went unnoticed in the pantry, with a striped larvae in it? Dermestids. Kids left a poptart on the dresser for a few weeks? You know the culprit by now. Open up drapes in a spare room and notice a flightless moth that flutters to the ground and crawls away? Bingo, thats the same moth thats eating your mount. They like the residue on feathers, plus dextrine based glues we mount animals with, plus many other things, like the sawdust we tumble the skins in! Ive seen dermestid larvae boring into deer forms...before they were mounted! Id say to call a good exterminator who is familiar with these specific pests. The best there is is Steve Miller trophy room exterminators out of NC. He travels to trophy rooms around the country and is quite reasonable. I reccommend him to all my clients with large collections. Even the one mount house can bug bomb the house twice a year with good results. Unfortunately, Ive never seen an infested mount saved, though...