Leslie, this won't work on embalmed (=chemically fixed) tissues.
Dermestids can handle a lot, but draw the line at formaldehyde. I've seen
lots of attempts to get dermestids to handle vertebrate material
previously preserved in isopropyl, ethanol and/or formaldehyde, and the
results are usually very disappointing.

Cheers,
Sally Shelton
Director, Collections Care and Conservation
President-Elect, SPNHC

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
|                                                                       |
|                 San Diego Natural History Museum                      |
|                          P. O. Box 1390                               |
|                San Diego, California   92112  USA                     |
|             phone (619) 232-3821; FAX (619) 232-0248                  |
|                     email [log in to unmask]                          |
|                                                                       |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Wed, 27 Aug 1997, Leslie Johnston wrote:

> While I'm not at a natural history museum, I do know that a number of
> institutions keep colonies of dermestid beetles  to strip the flesh from
> specimins for storage and display.  From what I understand they are very
> efficient.  I know that I've seeb discussion of these beetles on this
> list before, so someone aught to be able to comment.
>
> Leslie Johnston
> Stanford University Museum of Art
>