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Cleaning bones?

AbsoluteApril

AbsoluteApril

mighty blue justice
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One of my co-workers has a lot of rattlesnakes on his property. He found some bones (still looking for the skull) and gave them to me. Does anyone have tips on how to clean these?
 

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Freeze them till summer and put them on an ant bed,theyll be shiny in a few days
Ive cleaned many skulls like this with natures perfect cleaning service
 
Around here we could just leave them out near a fire ant mound and they would take care of it.
 
I'm in city, no ant hills that I know of around here and I'd be worried if I left them out that the racoons (or another person) would take them. Could I bury them?

I'll check out the link, thanks!
 
That looks like a job for dermestid beetles you can usually find the larva in your local pet stores cricket bin (they look like fuzzy worms).
You can order larger amounts of dermestids from doubleds.org or bugsincyberspace.com
 
This is very fun. If you watch the show Oddities, some episodes give you advice on how to articulate skeletons. There is a member here who is really good at this ... can't remember the screen name.
 
DO NOT put snake bones on an ant mound. Ant mounds work fine for larger bones, but will damage thin bones. Your best bet is to order a small colony of dermestid beetles. They're inexpensive and can be kept in a 10 gallon lidless tank. The adult beetles look similar to mealworm beetles, and the larvae are those fuzzy things you see in cricket shipments sometimes. Make sure you keep the colony in a well ventilated location (because they can stink depending upon what carcass you've got in there) and spray them once in a while to make sure they stay hydrated. Don't keep them too wet or they will smell and the flesh will get really nasty.
 
Yup right near the bed and even fire ants will get right to it.
Texas has the red ants and black ants (do not know the species,never cared)
Nasty critters that even fire ants dont mess with :)
AbsoluteApril said:
I'm in city, no ant hills that I know of around here and I'd be worried if I left them out that the racoons (or another person) would take them. Could I bury them?

I'll check out the link, thanks!
Click to expand...
 
Be careful with dermestids.. the adults CAN fly unlike darkling (mealworm) beetles. Dermestid lavae can cause some damage to carpets and various fabrics (primarly natural fibers but also some synthetics) if the adults are able to start propagating freely outside of a contained environment. Most people who use dermestids for bone cleaning have a shed set up outside or a garage area to keep the colony.
 
Adrian is correct, you do have to exercise some care. I've noticed dermestids are disinclined to fly if well fed and comfortable. We keep them under a chemistry hood in the lab to process specimens for our scientific collection. They work really well and don't damage bone at all.
 
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