What'll expedite the disintegration of hide and meat?

fishshooter

fishshooter

Joined
Mar 29, 2006
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I put several alligator heads in some chicken wire and put them out in the swamp a few weeks ago. Usually they'll rot and the bugs and what not will strip em clean. I went out and checked on them today, but its been so dry that much of the tougher tissue, like the hide, has dehydrated. Even the maggots and beetles have left it. Is there anything I can put on them to strip them down to bone? I figured some of y'all may have experience with european mounts.
 
Crawdads. Seriously. Add some chicken parts to attract them and keep them submerged.
 
Dermistids can become a nuisance if they get indoors. There should be naturally occurring insects that will do the trick. Keep the skulls covered with some leaf litter or what nor to help keep the humidity up around the skulls. Once the skulls are free of connective tissue and such, clean them thoroughly with soap and water as many times as it takes to remove any oils left over in the bone. Then get your hands on some high percentage hydrogen peroxide to bleach the skulls. DO NOT USE BLEACH! Professionally mounted skulls get the hydrogen peroxide treatment with (?) magnesium sulfide, phosphate(?) something along those lines, I have done numerous skulls with only the hydrogen peroxide and I have gotten great results. The HP I use is 43% and will give you an awful chemical burn if you don't use gloves. I recommend using gloves. Strongly. Good luck.
 
The beetles and stuff usually work them over pretty good, and had started on these. Most the muscle are gone. As are the eyes and tongues and such. I may try to keep them moist and see if the critters come back and finish cleaning them. I'd try the crawfish thing, but with the drought the water is so low I had to pull my traps due to the gators and turtles wrecking them. Only water left is the channels, no backwater at all.
 
Yes, h2o2 will do the trick. You MUST exercise extreme caution here though. Concentrated h2o2 will react and make a NASTY chemical burn pretty much instantly. Wear glasses (one drop will cause blindness of that eye), thick gloves, and be sure you don't wear sandals :)
 
Where can you get concentrated h2o2? The only stuff I'm familiar with is the drug store variety.
 
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