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Yeah, but be careful they don't get where they aren't wanted. The bone room at our museum has negative air pressure inside, to reduce the likelihood of the insects getting out. Even mealworms (easily obtained via pet shops) will do some cleaning, but I agree that those who think maceration is probably the best bet and least likely to negatively effect delicate structures. I remember my shock, as a kid, when I naively put a bird's sternum into a jar of bleach filled water (if bleach works, the more the better, right?) only to come back later and find I had hardly anything left! Another example of bad advice from well-meaning parents coping with a kid who presented them with problems none of the other parents had to face. Barry From: SciArt-L Discussion List-for Natural Science Illustration- [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Bruce Bartrug Sent: Tuesday, March 09, 2010 4:44 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [SCIART] bone cleaning and identification Dermestid beetles work best. If there's a university nearby that has a dermestid colony (it would be a university with a large collection of specimens) ask it they'd let feed the beetles :). Use gloves, by the way. bruce On Tue, Mar 9, 2010 at 4:39 PM, Wendy Hiller Gee <[log in to unmask]> wrote: I find these instructions from The Bone Room (a great natural history store in Berkeley, CA) work really well: http://www.boneroom.com/faqs/bones.html (scroll down to find a link to the .pdf on cleaning bones). I've used this maceration technique very successfully, even on the family hamster I dug up after a year in the ground - naturally, with the full agreement of the rest of the family... wendy Wendy Hiller Gee, CMI Director, Art & Design Krames Patient Education 1100 Grundy Lane San Bruno, CA 94066 . 650.244.4320 . . [log in to unmask] . . www.krames.com . On Mar 9, 2010, at 1:05 PM, Sarah Walsh Laporte wrote: Scrubbing with Borax and water can do the trick. (you can also make a paste with the borax, and leave it on there for a while for any tough spots). But boiling probably works the best. Good Luck! Heather Ward wrote: I haven't spoken up in a while, but I know you guys are the best people to ask this. I was out in the woods today looking for deer antlers, and while I didn't find any antlers, I did find two segments of a spine with four vertebrae each. They look like they'd been there a while as they are white with very little tissue still attached, mostly on the tips. While perusing the archives I see people have used boiling water to remove the meat or peroxide to whiten the cleaned bones, and that bleach is bad. With so little material left on the bones, what is the best way to get rid of it? Gentle scrubbing? with water? I'd also like to figure out what animal they came from, if possible. I'm guessing something coyote-sized. Are there any online resources I can check out? Thanks so much! Heather -- Heather Ward Wildlife Artist [log in to unmask] http://www.HeatherWardWildlifeArt.com/ http://heatherwardwildlifeart.blogspot.com/ http://www.fineartamerica.com/customshop/heather-ward.html http://www.facebook.com/pages/Heather-Ward-Wildlife-Art/71834961857 ________________________________________________ Need to leave or subscribe to the Sciart-L listserv? Follow the instructions at http://citnews.unl.edu/presentmethods_lana/listserv/index.html Need to leave or subscribe to the Sciart-L listserv? Follow the instructions at http://citnews.unl.edu/presentmethods_lana/listserv/index.html ________________________________________________ Need to leave or subscribe to the Sciart-L listserv? Follow the instructions at http://citnews.unl.edu/presentmethods_lana/listserv/index.html -- Bruce Bartrug Nobleboro, Maine, USA [log in to unmask] www.brucebartrug.com The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing. - Albert Einstein ________________________________________________ Need to leave or subscribe to the Sciart-L listserv? Follow the instructions at http://citnews.unl.edu/presentmethods_lana/listserv/index.html Need to leave or subscribe to the Sciart-L listserv? Follow the instructions at http://citnews.unl.edu/presentmethods_lana/listserv/index.html