# Dermestid beetles - Testing the water



## eddygecko (Feb 14, 2007)

Evening all,

As some of you who frequent the reptillian areas of the forum may know, aswell as keeping live reptiles i also clean and prepare the skeletons of deceased ones. I have been doing this for around a year now and although i havn't had much time to work on things over the past month or 2 I hope to start a website ect around July time to start selling my work, and also the beetles I use. 

The beetles are a member of the dermestidae (carpet beetle) family and are used by taxidermists all over the world in the preperation of skeletons. Colonies are frequently maintained by universities and museums in the states but until now they have not been avaliable in the UK. 

With my colony currently flourishing I am planning to begin selling starter colonys and possible attend a show or 2 later this year with some beetles and skeletons/skulls for sale. 

To start with I would only be selling small colonies in tubs of around 15-20 adult beetles with 30-40 larvae. A printed care guide would also be included outlining the requirements and my own tips for keeping based on my personal experience. 

Although this only sounds a small number of beetles, with the correct temperature and plenty of food they will number in the thousands within 6 months and tens of thousands within a year. 

At the minute I am trying to decide on a fair price for a small colony, and also guage the interest in the beetles. They are easy to maintain and it takes little effort to produce very high quality and proffesional looking skulls. 

If you give me any feedback on price or interest through the poll or comments that would be great. 

Thanks very much, 

Ed


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## Tarron (May 30, 2010)

Hey eddy gecko,

I have put £1 - £2 as I think that seems pretty reasonable for what you are getting, especially is people often end up with a fair few in each box of crickets.

Can't say I would be interested in these myself, but having seen some of your specimens I do think they look quite good, and could see them selling given the right demographic of customers.

Wish you the best of luck

Tarron


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## OrigamiB (Feb 19, 2008)

£10-12.50

I only say this as you've hit a niche market here really, meaning you can put whatever price on it you want (within reason). The only people buying them from you will be specialists or newcomers to the hobby of taxidermy, either way £10 is not much for something thats hard to come by in the UK and is almost necessary for this particular hobby.
I was considering taking this hobby up but as I still live with my parents this hobby may be one smell too far!


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## jaykickboxer (Feb 11, 2008)

OrigamiB said:


> £10-12.50
> 
> I only say this as you've hit a niche market here really, meaning you can put whatever price on it you want (within reason). The only people buying them from you will be specialists or newcomers to the hobby of taxidermy, either way £10 is not much for something thats hard to come by in the UK and is almost necessary for this particular hobby.
> I was considering taking this hobby up but as I still live with my parents this hobby may be one smell too far!


they come with crickets so doubt ul get 12 quid


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## eddygecko (Feb 14, 2007)

OrigamiB said:


> £10-12.50
> 
> I only say this as you've hit a niche market here really, meaning you can put whatever price on it you want (within reason). The only people buying them from you will be specialists or newcomers to the hobby of taxidermy, either way £10 is not much for something thats hard to come by in the UK and is almost necessary for this particular hobby.
> I was considering taking this hobby up but as I still live with my parents this hobby may be one smell too far!


Thanks, thats the reasoning i thought of really. In my mind i'm thinking of between £5 and £7.50 as they need to be cheap enough that some people will go well; thats worth giving a go its not that much to lose. Whereas a tenner seems a bit more and might put some people off. 





jaykickboxer said:


> they come with crickets so doubt ul get 12 quid


 They do not come with crickets. That is a different specie of the family, I have tried to colonise them bugs from cricket tubs before but they are terrible for cleaing and never seem to thrive aswell as this particular specie. There are hundreds of species of dermestids many of which have been colonised for use in taxidermy over the last 200 years. Nowdays only 1 specie is used as it has been found to work best and thrive in captivity, even my smallish colony can clear through a couple of kilos of meat in a day, others from cricket tubs i colonised could never get near that.


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## PeterUK (Jun 21, 2008)

Interesting read with youtube video's ..  LINK


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## OrigamiB (Feb 19, 2008)

That and getting 50 beetles from boxes of crickets would be a pain in the arse!


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## 8and6 (Jan 19, 2010)

if you can make a go of it i say do it.

just to confirm, yes, they are in fact two different species, the OP is talking about selling Dermestes maculatus which eats animal protein, whereas the ones found in cricket tubes are Dermestes ater, which target fungi and other things associated with decomp.

i think the problem here is that most taxidermists (professorial and hobbyist), museums and universities that use them are happy to give away starter colonies for free.


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## GRB (Jan 24, 2008)

Have you tried seeing what price biological supply houses sell them for? 

I'm not sure if blades or sciento sell them, but there will be taxidermy suppliers kicking about online. Not used them myself, I deal with wet preservation.


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## snowgoose (May 5, 2009)

Are these also known as Asthma beetles?


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## OrigamiB (Feb 19, 2008)

[email protected] said:


> if you can make a go of it i say do it.
> 
> just to confirm, yes, they are in fact two different species, the OP is talking about selling Dermestes maculatus which eats animal protein, whereas the ones found in cricket tubes are Dermestes ater, which target fungi and other things associated with decomp.
> 
> i think the problem here is that most taxidermists (professorial and hobbyist), museums and universities that use them are happy to give away starter colonies for free.


Are you sure that the species found in cricket tubs only prey on fungi and decomposing stuff? I was under the impression that they were nasty little buggers and they'd prey on weak or shedding crickets too which is why you don't want them in the tub


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## 8and6 (Jan 19, 2010)

yup i'm sure....they are used in the larger cricket farms as clean up crew for the dead decaying crickets and left over food etc


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## Becky (Mar 26, 2007)

I've looked up the prices of dermestids before as we do some stuff with bones and skeletons sometimes too. But the colonies i found were £80 each!!! 

If we were doing stuff with skeletons on a big scale i would invest in some, but we don't. The majority of the time we chuck some mealies and maggots in and let nature take its course in a bucket in the garden :lol2:


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## eddygecko (Feb 14, 2007)

[email protected] said:


> i think the problem here is that most taxidermists (professorial and hobbyist), museums and universities that use them are happy to give away starter colonies for free.


 There is only one major taxidermist in the UK who primarily works with skeletons/dermestids and he does not supply beetles to the public. I contacted the natural history museum, Cambridge zoology museum and the UCL skeleton collection when i was originally trying to source beetles but none were willing to supply any. 




GRB said:


> Have you tried seeing what price biological supply houses sell them for?
> 
> I'm not sure if blades or sciento sell them, but there will be taxidermy suppliers kicking about online. Not used them myself, I deal with wet preservation.


I hadn't heard of blades before but have just had a look on their site and they sell 20-30 adults for £13.50. I could comfortably beat that price so there may be something in it. I had no luck finding any taxidermy suppliers in the UK or France/Germany or the Netherlands when i started up and ended up importing my original colony from America.


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## snowgoose (May 5, 2009)

Are these the same as what are sometimes referred to as Asthma Beetles?


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## eddygecko (Feb 14, 2007)

snowgoose said:


> Are these the same as what are sometimes referred to as Asthma Beetles?


I havn't heard them referred to as that before.


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## GRB (Jan 24, 2008)

eddygecko said:


> I hadn't heard of blades before but have just had a look on their site and they sell 20-30 adults for £13.50. I could comfortably beat that price so there may be something in it. I had no luck finding any taxidermy suppliers in the UK or France/Germany or the Netherlands when i started up and ended up importing my original colony from America.


The Snowdonia Catalogue Taxidermy Supplies > Welcome

They don't sell beetles, but I thought it might be useful to post it here whilst we're talking about it.


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## peterf (Jul 27, 2007)

[email protected] said:


> yup i'm sure....they are used in the larger cricket farms as clean up crew for the dead decaying crickets and left over food etc


No theyr'e not!!!!
They are a pest!!!!!
No offense at the thread starter but I shudder at the thought of people buying them to breed!!


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## BenjaminBoaz (Jan 6, 2006)

I was going to say try blades but someone beet me! Lol. I seem to breed those ones that come in with the crickets easy enough, but if they are the wrong type then that's no good. I end up throwing them out for the birds.


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## spinnin_tom (Apr 20, 2011)

i put £1-£2 since like somebody else said, you get a good amount in a box of live food. i have at least 15 beetles and larvae in a box on their own at the moment, from one tube of food.


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## Tarron (May 30, 2010)

I apologise for my earlier comment, I didnt realise they wete different specie

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s, with different appetites, etc. Going by what I've seen in other posts, anything up to tenner per box seems fair enough. Good luck with you venture buddy


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## 123dragon (Jan 15, 2011)

good luck mate, i reckon u are guna make alot of money


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## eddygecko (Feb 14, 2007)

Tarron said:


> I apologise for my earlier comment, I didnt realise they wete different species, with different appetites, etc. Going by what I've seen in other posts, anything up to tenner per box seems fair enough. Good luck with you venture buddy


Thanks. Also feel free to pm any comments, i've had a good response so far and will be shipping the first few batches out at the start of next week.


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## kieran2698 (Sep 19, 2011)

I am interested in buying your beetles or the larvae. Do you still have them for sale and how much do you charge?


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## Genseric (Oct 7, 2007)

I would be interested simply because animals like these always do fascinate me. Let me know what you decide to do.

Grr.. see what you made me do! This thread is old! Zombie like.. Pet Cemetery even!


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## spinnin_tom (Apr 20, 2011)

kieran2698 said:


> i am interested in buying your beetles or the larvae. Do you still have them for sale and how much do you charge?


necro ftw


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## hedwigdan (Apr 17, 2011)

did you ever start making these colonies mate?


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## bloodsyre (Jan 29, 2012)

Do you still have colonies for sale? I just did a quick search for these beetles and very few threads came up. Hope you can help


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## boxofsorrows (Nov 7, 2011)

bloodsyre said:


> Do you still have colonies for sale? I just did a quick search for these beetles and very few threads came up. Hope you can help


You might be better off sending him a PM with this thread being so old he may not notice your post.


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