No offence kshunter but from one kansan to another if your have beetles eating deer heads in your bed room you must be a red neck! My kind of neighbor.

Well, Zrex as the origianal post says, I have done the dirty deed of boiling and hate. This discussion is looking for other means.

Haha... If I were still dating girls mode I'd guarentee I wouldn't have them in there, but now with my current girlfriend, she seems to put up with anything Heck it's her deer rack that she shot, which is currently in there. If it benefits her, then she's cool with it.

kshunter where did you get your bettles to start with?.....i havent had any luck up here in Canada

as for boiling.......i just did a Bear skull.........along with the boiling water I put in 250 mills ( 1 CUP ) of 50% peroxide in the 10 gallon pot.helps keep the foaming down and starts the whiting process......just dont over due the peroxide or you'll land up with a powdery skull.

Yes this is the nastiest way to do it but it is effort free....

I have a big old ice chest that is just big enough to fit a big set of antlers in with a head attached, I just toss the head into the ice chest, prop the lid open with a small rock, just big enought to let the fly's in.... after a two days I take the rock out and shut the lid , five days later is get a GOOD set of rubber gloves and open the lid and get the VERY clean skul out and get the lower jaw out also if you need it. Then wash with water and bleach...

Smelly and gross but Very effective , turns out the cleanest skulls I have every seen new to the Dermistead beetle colony's

I think I seen them(the beetles) on ebay for sale one time.

Send it to these guys

http://www.skulltaxidermy.com/

I'll have to do some digging to find the reciept. I did a search on the interent and couldn't find their website anymore. Usually it comes right up, so maybe they stopped selling them. I paid less than $20(shipping included) and got around 40 beetles and larva, which was a fair price. After looking at http://www.skulltaxidermy.com/ I guess it wasn't a bad price. That place isselling agroup of 25 for $55 + $12.50. Talk about a rip-off. Heck here in a couple months, I'll have more than I need,and I'll starteithergiving them a way to letting them go. I probably have about 150-200 now, and they way they're multiplying, I'll have twice that many in 2 months. I better get too killing a lot of animals!

Boiling with soda ash is the best method, if you have to scrape you didn't boil long enough,
Use a sift or mosquito mesh to collect loose teeth.

Alex
Advance Taxidermy, Miami Fla.

Here's the place I bought from:

www.dermestidbeetlecolonies.com

Currently they're runing a good deal. They include 50% more than the kit as shown. So you'll get 60-80 beatles for $19.00 and that's shipped.