Hello, We maintain a dermestid colony at work that is used by the bird and fish folks and the smell is really, REALLY bad. I think it's more the fish than the bugs but only a few people have strong enough stomachs to work in there. Keep that in mind if you plan on doing this in an apartment. Another great method of seeing a gecko's skull is to clear and stain the specimen. In this process you stain the bone red and cartilage blue and then "clear" the rest of the flesh so you can see into the critter. Very cool. If I get time I'll take some pictures of some geckos I did a couple of years ago.
Sunday, February 03, 2002, 9:18:35 AM, you wrote: >>However, to get quality small animal skeletons and skulls, the beetles are >>needed. The dermestids are easy to cultivate LP> an easy way, but not reliable, to get dermastids is to order crickets from LP> one of the less reliable companies. You will see the fuzzy larva mixed in LP> with the crickets. The adults are small black beetles. You can buy LP> cultures from some of the bio houses like Carolina Biological Supply. LP> Be sure to remove the skin of the animals prior to putting the skull in LP> with the beetles. I learned the hard way and ended up with a clean skeleton LP> coevred with skin. It didnt work out! -- Best regards, Tony mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ########################################################################### THE GLOBAL GECKO ASSOCIATION LISTSERV WebSite: www.gekkota.com Archive: [EMAIL PROTECTED]/ The GGA takes no responsibility for the contents of these postings. ###########################################################################
