Laurel,
A dermestid colony is not an easy thing to manage. Many people
unwittingly starve or kill the beetlkes, or make it easy for them to get
out or for predators (e.g. spiders) to get in. Elizabeth Pillaert of the
Zoological Museum at the University of Wisconsin--Madison is one of the
few people I know who really understands and works with dermestid biology
and cycles. Many people expect the beetles to do too much for too little.
(Hmm...sounds like a museum work cross-stitch sampler.)

At any rate, I have had to kill two colonies because they were heavily
infested with all kinds of other arthropods, and may have to do a third
here. My advice is don't get into this unless you have a person dedicated
to managing the colony, the supplies and structure to keep them happy and
isolated (off-site is good), and enough specimen preparation volume to
justify the cost. Otherwise, go for alternative osteology prep methods
that don't require this much work and risk to the collections. Dermestids
are hard work with high risks.

To all of you patient souls on the list who have no idea what this is
referring to: if you saw _Gorky Park_, you may remember the skull
preparation was being done with insects....that was a dermestid colony.
They are often used in forensic prep as well.

Sally Shelton
Director, Collections Care and Conservation
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