[Nhcoll-l] Museum Project

[Thomas Labedz]

There are several alternative ways of preparing osteo material depending on the size and fragility of the material being prepared. Yes, meal worms work. So do isopods, crayfish, crabs, composting, maceration, etc. and combinations of them to produce skeletons. Dermestids can be quick. When my colony was going strong it could clean 20-30 mouse-sized vertebrates each day, or 1-2 larger vertebrates. Dermestids that typically infest collections are often not the same as those used in osteo prep. They can cause problems too, but is usually the smaller species that are the main culprit in collection damage.

Thomas Labedz, Collections Manager
Division of Zoology and Division of Botany
University of Nebraska State Museum
Lincoln, Nebraska, U.S.A.
tlabedz1 at unl.edu<mailto:tlabedz1 at unl.edu>

From: nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu [mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Jessica Smith
Sent: Wednesday, November 15, 2017 6:12 PM
To: Casey Tucker
Cc: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] Museum Project

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<mailto:esmith at randolphcollege.edu>

On Nov 15, 2017 6:26 PM, "Casey Tucker" <tuckercasey at hotmail.com<mailto: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=DwIGaQ&c=cjytLXgP8ixuoHflwc-poQ&r=LpYc_Z_iN1KRw0hheb3x6-8MJUMu482qfHowpGYJqwc&m=NcvYSPwcYtWYaHnD0cNm7r2rjX_7hfetDvbW3Gtqg8E&s=A5V-6Xzpezas2SRSoak4eP1DdckPOgl-k-w4aoG7g9Q&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.




_______________________________________________
Nhcoll-l mailing list
Nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:Nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>
http://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/nhcoll-l

_______________________________________________
NHCOLL-L is brought to you by the Society for the Preservation of
Natural History Collections (SPNHC), an international society whose
mission is to improve the preservation, conservation and management of
natural history collections to ensure their continuing value to
society. See https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.spnhc.org&d=DwIGaQ&c=cjytLXgP8ixuoHflwc-poQ&r=LpYc_Z_iN1KRw0hheb3x6-8MJUMu482qfHowpGYJqwc&m=NcvYSPwcYtWYaHnD0cNm7r2rjX_7hfetDvbW3Gtqg8E&s=_8LQOhbdQ-K9zVvOJS5bpryuVAOCufYjNy8Vfp8NUQI&e=<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.spnhc.org&d=DwMFaQ&c=cjytLXgP8ixuoHflwc-poQ&r=LpYc_Z_iN1KRw0hheb3x6-8MJUMu482qfHowpGYJqwc&m=2Nt69-tmcqLlgnDVtkCQLaKvT_KuGB7-H85MSO5KFFw&s=V5-y9wNgAJ4VyJ3hYwvK7fONcCQ0NKZFN5vKzjzpxiw&e=> for membership information.
Advertising on NH-COLL-L is inappropriate.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/nhcoll-l/attachments/20171116/a61897f0/attachment.html