The dermestid beetle colony is growing in leaps and bounds. Whenever I open the box, I see all stages of development throughout the shavings, in the styrofoam, and climbing over and inside the heads.
I've been focused on the timing for this no-antler head because it is the third fleshy skull added for cleaning. It has the most flesh to clean, including the eyes, tongue, and brain. With the colony growing, let's see how long it takes.
The large mound of flesh on the front side has been cleaned. The eye sockets and tongue are dried up.
Last night, I turned the head over to bring the brain-mush up top to get the beetles eating inside the brain cavity. I wanted to see if it made a difference.
This brown, goopy mess needs to be cleaned as the brain leaks out once it thaws and decomposes. By morning, the cavity was concave and it appeared that they were working on it. It is important to be careful with moving the skull around because the teeth could fall out and need to be collected.
I am leaving the cleaned coyote skull in the box. It is done, and there is no rush to return it for degreasing. Also, the beetle larvae have taken a liking to it, so I'll remove it later.
