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As do many museums, we use a colony of carpet beetles, Dermestes marmoratus,to clean skeletons for the collection. There are several other species of Dermestes, including D. vulpina which are commonly used. It is important to keep them out of the skin collections, since they will make short work of the study skins, leaving only a pile of hair or feathers. For more about preparing skeletons with dermestids go here!

The Dermestarium

There are many different ways to preserve the diversity of organisms that are collected for study in a museum. In the vertebrate collection, most specimens were typically prepared as study skins or preserved as "pickles" in a solution of alcohol or formaldehyde. A study skin or pickle could be prepared in the field and easily transported back to the museum, but skeleton preparation was much more difficult.

To prepare a skeleton, the specimen would be skinned then either buried or put in a container of water. This was a good, but slow way of removing flesh from the bones. The bacteria in the soil or water slowly digested the flesh. Maceration, the process of separating the organism into its constituent elements by steeping in water, was by far the most popular and practical method used in museums, but it required a great deal of space to prepare a lot of specimens and was labor intensive. Besides, open jars of rotting flesh, smelling as they do, were very unpopular with most of the museum staff. Despite its many drawbacks, maceration produced very fine results.

It was discovered in the 1930's that native carrion beetles of the family Dermestidae could easily be kept in captivity. Since that time, the use of dermestids has seen a steady growth in popularity. The pea-sized adults reproduce prolifically at room temperature, and the larvae, which range in length from approximately .5 to 8 millimeters, can actually clean inside bone structures such as the auditory bullae and nasal fossa where it was impossible for preparators to clean previously.

Today, the bug-room in the UMMZ is a modern, air-conditioned, climate-controlled environment. A far cry from a fetid jar of disgusting slime.

Boxes of carcasses in the beetle colony:

Here are some examples of bird skeletons being cleaned. Note the shiny adults and various sizes of hairy larvae:



Snakes and turtles after cleaning--



Photos and text by Stephen H. Hinshaw, Bug Room Preparator.