Pazzoman;4686613; said:
we use Hydrogen peroxide and a home made bleach paste made from climbers chalk. Not only will it kill any beetles remaining but it makes them nice and clean looking.
Cleaning a hog skull (graphic)
- Thread starter snakeguy101
- Start date
we use Hydrogen peroxide and a home made bleach paste made from climbers chalk. Not only will it kill any beetles remaining but it makes them nice and clean looking.
Are any preservation treatments required after cleaning? If I found a dead animal, could I just secure the head to a tree (or something) and let nature do this for me? Could I just throw a skull in an ant bed and let them handle it(or would they eat the bone as well)?
Ants are a great way to clean skulls, just speaking from personal experence. They leave the bone 100% clean of meat and fat.
Raetak;4688512; said:
I know there are many variables, but how long do you think it would take the ants to completely devour all of the tissue off of a similarly sized head?
There are 1' tall x 1.5' wide ant hills all throughout the cow pastures, so I assume that more ants = faster skull cleaning.
snakeguy101;4686663; said:
I have a few friends who are into collecting bones and such, they always use a strong hydrogen peroxide because they think soaking it in bleach weakens the bone. Have you noticed this? Does the bleach paste have that effect?
jeosbo01;4688558; said:
no because it is not actually made from bleach it just has the bleaching effect without effecting the integrity of the bone.
snakeguy101;4688583; said:
Sorry, I'm a little ignorant here...you just mix the climbers chalk with water to make the paste?
When I was a kid I used to take northern pike heads and nail them to the barn by their gill covers, prop a stick in their mouths and let nature take it's course. By the end of summer the sticks had fallen out through the bottom of their mouths leaving the jaws agape showing off those knarley teeth. My dad thought I was a little strange as a child 
..
---Chris
..---Chris
jeosbo01;4688615; said:
with peroxide in place of water but yeah. That way you dont have to use a whole tub of peroxide but you can just brush it on.
snakeguy101;4688647; said:
Good info man, I'll pass that along. I know one of the guys is always griping about how much peroxide he goes through, he tried to use it a second time on a set of bones and ruined them, he wined about it for a week
