Just thought Id post a pic of the latest skull mount that I did with my dermistid beetles. I think it turned out pretty good, so does my boy!!

Very nice mount. I wish I had the patience to do something like that.

Very nice, and cheaper than a taxidermy mount!

[8D] Nice looking mount and great looking family photo for the album.

beetles ?

how did you do that?

must have missed the orig. post

nice mount and buck

that is just an awesome pic [8D], thanks for sharing it with us

Cute kid in the Carhart bibs. Nice Rack too.

ugly dog The beetles are a strain of carpet beetle, that will eat the remaining flesh off of the skull after you skin it and cut off the big peices of meat. Its really pretty easy you just have to take care of your bugs so theywill eat fast and multiply. Then all you have to do is the bleaching process. Its not as fast as boiling the skull, but itsnot as much of a pain, the bugs do the work, and do it better than boiling, you just have to wait and tolerate the smell.

How are you encouraging the dermestids? Are you just using the normal populations that feed on organic debris, and rely on the population to boom, or do you have a "starter" for them?
Ironic, I'm a PMP and usually get called in when people find dermestids and other critters feeding on their supposedly properly preserved mounts. Had one guy locally that must have had over $1,000,000 in mounts, at todays prices. Every bear species, every deer species, every sheep, goat, antelope, cat, pacyderm, you name it he had at least one. He even had a walrus mount, NEVER seen anyone with one before!