[Nhcoll-l] Providing water to dermestids

[Rogers, Steve]

Greetings Tonya,

To add to what Tom said-
The key to getting dermestid beetles to clean every bit of tissue within the specimen is to not dry the carcass out. I might prep 50 bird skeletons or 10 snapping turtles on a given day back when I was a full time preparator, and then dry them in front of a fan on a screen a few hours or overnight depending on the size of the carcass. Then place the dried carcasses in a plastic bag and re-freeze them. When you have the correct size colony to handle the respectively sized carcasses simply get out the number of skeletons you can handle. I attempt to get every skeleton cleaned between 5-10 days. Any faster and the bugs won't be able to crawl into all the crevice's and consume all the tissue within the brain and vertebral column. I can build a colony large enough to eat a good-sized heron in 6 hours but it risks damage to the bone surface by voracious bugs and doesn't clean the whole skeleton - just the exposed surfaces. Also if you have too many bugs to handle small skeletons a huge group of bugs will smother the box and perhaps cause small pieces to be carried outside of the presentation box. When cleaning very small skeletons (snakes smaller than 4 inches, hummingbirds, small bats or shrews), I get a contingent of small dermestids in a subset of the main colony by having a glut of adults lay eggs on some pieces of jerky and then wait for the instars to hatch. Adult dermestids can damage small carcasses by even pushing around the ribs and certainly can't get into the brain case to remove tissue.

Leaving some moisture in the original meat and freezing before feeding makes for complete cleaning. Moisture can also be controlled in your colony. I keep them in various sized aquariums and in the winter when humidity is high, I place a plastic bag over the top of the screened aquarium. I used to mist specimens with a plant mister but now just use care in keeping humidity naturally in the carcasses.

Too high of humidity, besides all the pests Tom mentioned, also causes mites to build up which can ruin a colony. Always freeze specimens found in the wild (dried partly eaten carcasses) to nake sure you don't introduce a wild meat eating bug or dermestid inhabiting mites into your colony. Soaking in weak ammonia will also kill these potential pests and also make the remaining tissue more palatable to your particular dermetid colony.

Stephen P. Rogers (Mr.)
Collection Manager of Section of Birds
and Section of Amphibians and Reptiles
Carnegie Museum of Natural History
4400 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh PA 15213-4080
Phone: 412-622-3255 or 3258
Email: rogerss at CarnegieMNH.org
http://www.carnegiemnh.org/birds/index.html
http://www.carnegiemnh.org/herps/index.html
**************************************************
The views, opinions, and judgments expressed in this message
are solely those of the author. The message contents have not
been reviewed or approved by Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh
***************************************************
From: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> On Behalf Of Thomas Labedz
Sent: Thursday, March 07, 2019 5:00 PM
To: Tonya.Haff at csiro.au; nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] Providing water to dermestids


Tonya

I ran what I'd consider a very efficient dermestid colony in our prep room for over 30 years. I never had a water source in the container with dermestids. I relied on not quite totally dry tissue for them, using that moisture to attract them to feed (and drink). When things got too dry to feed efficiently I'd apply drops of water to the area of the tissue in need of further chewing. If what I was wanting them to prep was too dry I'd soak the carcass and then er-dry it to my satisfaction before tossing it in. If things get too damp or humid in the dermestid colony you run the risk of molds, fungi, fecal material and shed exoskeletons composting, attracting drain flies, cockroaches, or other unwanted pests to the dermestid colony.

Thomas

PS - Consider wearing a dust mask when working with the colony. Myself, and others, have developed sensitivity to the colony dust.



Thomas E. Labedz, Collections Manager

Division of Zoology and Division of Botany

University of Nebraska State Museum

Lincoln, Nebraska, U.S.A.

________________________________
From: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu>> on behalf of Tonya.Haff at csiro.au<mailto:Tonya.Haff at csiro.au> <Tonya.Haff at csiro.au<mailto:Tonya.Haff at csiro.au>>
Sent: Thursday, March 7, 2019 3:43 PM
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>
Subject: [Nhcoll-l] Providing water to dermestids


Hello all,



I have a question about looking after a dermestid colony. We have one going along happily at the moment, but we haven't had them for more than a month or two. We place each small carcass we feed them in a takeaway container, to keep specimens separate. Right now we're providing the dermestids with water by giving them cotton wool soaked in water, placed in large bottle caps, which we place in the takeaway container next to the skeleton. This means the larvae don't have to go far to look for something to drink (come to think of it though I'm not sure if it's the larvae or the adults that need to drink, or both). However, these small water supplies also dry out quickly. I'd like to instead have a larger water source, something like a chick water dispenser with cotton wool at the bottom, in the corner of the colony (which is smaller than 1m x 1m), but I'm not sure if this would be detrimental to the larvae. In a nutshell, I guess I'm asking how far a water source for dermestids needs to be from their food source for them to be happy and efficient. Thanks for your thoughts!



Cheers,



Tonya





---------------------------------------------------------

Dr Tonya Haff

Collections Manager

Australian National Wildlife Collection

National Research Collections Australia, CSIRO

Canberra, Australia

Phone: (+61) 02 6242 1566 (office)

(+61) 0419 569 109 (mobile)



I am in Thursdays and Fridays

Please call or text my mobile for a fast reponse Monday - Wednesday





The information contained in this message and/or attachments is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged material. Any review, retransmission, dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon, this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited. If you received this in error, please contact the sender and delete the material from any system and destroy any copies. Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/nhcoll-l/attachments/20190308/ed09b7d6/attachment.html>