[Nhcoll-l] Museum Project

[Jessica Smith]

Yes, this is of interest. We have found mealworms to be very effective for
cleaning osteological materials as an alternative to dermestid beetles.
They seem to be fairly hardy and the bones come out very clean without
ancillary damage. However I cannot say how this compares to dermestid
beetles in terms of  length of time to clean the specimens, space required,
and overall effectiveness as we have never had a beetle colony.

Emily Smith, Collections Coordinator
Randolph College Natural History and Archaeology Collections Project
esmith at randolphcollege.edu

On Nov 15, 2017 6:26 PM, "Casey Tucker" <tuckercasey at hotmail.com> wrote:

Hi Folks,


I'm passing this along for those that might be interested.  As a disclaimer
I have no part in this project or am I in anyway affiliated with it or its
members.


It's a project conducted by Junior High and High School students in Mexico
that might have implications for natural history museum prep staff and
collection managers.


Maceration of Skull Tissue by Mealworms

https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__experiment.com_projects_maceration-2Dof-2Dskull-2Dtissue-2Dby-2Dmealworms&d=DwIFaQ&c=cjytLXgP8ixuoHflwc-poQ&r=LpYc_Z_iN1KRw0hheb3x6-8MJUMu482qfHowpGYJqwc&m=2Nt69-tmcqLlgnDVtkCQLaKvT_KuGB7-H85MSO5KFFw&s=EJ5hgB4hyOIjL4__eCSBCNC8tBb8l-65vpOoucpDoQk&e=
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__experiment.com_projects_maceration-2Dof-2Dskull-2Dtissue-2Dby-2Dmealworms&d=DwMFAw&c=cjytLXgP8ixuoHflwc-poQ&r=LpYc_Z_iN1KRw0hheb3x6-8MJUMu482qfHowpGYJqwc&m=abH7mQMxjVSGDdKJkppSfflbLjd9bymvENmMqFc7zFg&s=bFw8XI57Fbyj1qdiffLz15DPeu3WMc4IBXxY5mQ5PMQ&e=>


About This Project
Could Mealworms be used as an alternative to dermestid beetles for skeleton
preparation? In museums, dermestid beetles can cause infestation problems
and destruction of valuable collections if let loose. Through this
experiment, we would like to find a way to reduce the chances of museum
infestations and give amateur osteologists and hunters an easier way of
processing animal materials to get clean skeletons.

<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__experiment.com_projects_maceration-2Dof-2Dskull-2Dtissue-2Dby-2Dmealworms&d=DwMFAw&c=cjytLXgP8ixuoHflwc-poQ&r=LpYc_Z_iN1KRw0hheb3x6-8MJUMu482qfHowpGYJqwc&m=abH7mQMxjVSGDdKJkppSfflbLjd9bymvENmMqFc7zFg&s=bFw8XI57Fbyj1qdiffLz15DPeu3WMc4IBXxY5mQ5PMQ&e=>




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