Flesh and bones: Florence taxidermy business, Big Sky Beetle Works, cleans specimens right down to the bone

Gary Haas has more than a few skeletons in his closet, but such is the nature of an osteological mammalogist.

A wildlife biologist by training, Haas makes a living by cleaning the bones and skulls of animals. And even though he has no workers on his payroll, he’s aided by an army of insects that work day and night for little more than food and lodging.

By ROD DANIEL Staff Reporter

http://www.ravallinews.com/articles/2004/11/26/bitterroot/61-outdoors.txt

The flesh-eating beetles, known in the scientific world as Dermestes canus, spend most of their time in the darkness of Haas’ beetle room, devouring what little rotting flesh remains on the scores of moose, elk, deer, pica, alligator and other animal skulls. Descendants of a dermestid colony established in 1980 at the University of Montana, the beetles were adopted by Haas after university officials decided in 1989 to take them off campus.

Estimated by Haas to number in the millions, the colony originally gained notoriety in 1981, he said, when it was used to clean up the remains of "Debbie Deer Creek," a woman found dead in Deer Creek Canyon near Missoula. Sadly, Haas said, her identity is still a mystery and her remains reside at the state crime lab in Helena.

Haas has worked with the beetles for 20 years and started his business, Big Sky Beetle Works http://www.treasurestate.com/beetleworks/ , 12 years ago, catering mostly to hunters who wish to preserve the skull and horns of their trophy animals. He also cleans skulls and skeletons for taxidermists, schools, museums, fish and game departments and, occasionally, medical schools and police departments.

"We clean anything skeletal and do a lot of work for schools around the country," Haas said. "The Corvallis schools got 30 skulls from us several years ago when a fire destroyed their science lab."

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Big Sky Beetle Works, LLC

We Clean Anything Skeletal, Smelly Or Not!

Dermestid Beetle Colony Est. 1980

Gary T. Haas, Owner

5359 2nd Street P.O. Box 776

Florence, MT 59833-0776

(406) 273-3279 or

For our out of state callers —

toll free 1-877-398-3323

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For educational purposes, Haas said, there’s no substitute for having a real skeleton as opposed to a picture or model.

"You can learn so much from the Internet," he said, "but you don’t get to touch it."

Haas runs his business from a building adjacent to his home in Florence that’s equipped with an elaborate ventilation system to eliminate the inevitable odor associated with his profession. But despite his best efforts, he admits the smell sometimes offends his neighbors.

"The smell is an unfortunate side-effect of the business; it stinks," he said. "But to be honest with you, I can’t smell it. I have almost no sense of smell or taste anymore."

Haas said he hopes to soon expand to a much larger building with freezers and a more expensive and better ventilation system.

A tour of Haas’ workplace is like stepping into a an ungulate haunted house. The cold, dark room leading into the beetle room is piled high with animal heads, each sporting a plastic i.d. tag and each clinging to the rotting flesh that soon will be devoured by the voracious beetles. Hanging from the ceiling is a bug zapper, placed there to capture any insects seeking to escape from the work camp in the next room.

The cavernous carcass waiting room is no place for the queasy, as the stench is almost unbearable.

But the bread and butter of Big Sky Beetle Works lies within the insulated, metal-lined room that houses the flesh-eating dermestids. Usually pitch dark, the room buzzes with energy as the fluorescent light reveals the millions of scurrying detritovores, most seeking refuge under piles of tattered towels and scowling skeletons.

Like a proud father showing off his babies, Haas scoops up a handful of the bugs, confident that they’d rather chew the fat of a morbid mangy moose head than nibble on his own wrists.

"This particular colony originated in Africa," he said, as the lady-bug-size beetles scurried back to their foul-smelling feast. "But dermestids exist on every continent."

Over the years, he said, he’s introduced a handful of Montana dermestids into his colony, only to observe them trying to flee.

"They come in and are anxious to breed, but when they’re finished they don’t stick around," he said. "They try to fly out the door and get zapped by the bug zapper in the next room."

All skulls and skeletons eventually get picked clean by the bugs, but how long it takes depends on the size and type of animal. Buffalos tend to take the longest, he said, because their flesh dries up faster and has to be rehydrated.

Haas said he learned recently that the age of the flesh is of no concern to the beetles.

"A guy brought me a mule deer skull that he’d had since 1952," he said. "The beetles picked it clean. I guess 1952 was a good year for flesh."

After Haas’ beetles effectively remove all the flesh from a skeleton or skull, he degreases the bones and then bleaches them with hydrogen peroxide. The end result is a perfectly clean and polished specimen suitable for hanging on a wall or in a museum.

While the process of cleaning and whitening a skull is relatively simple, a certain amount of preparation must be done to each skull before it can be sent to the beetles. To help his customers save money and to save himself time, Haas encourages people to prepare the skulls before bringing them in to be cleaned.

Preparation includes skinning the skull and removing the vertebrae; removing the eyes and the meat underneath; removing the tongue and detaching the jaw. The brain of the animal must also be removed because it’s toxic to the beetles. The horns on animals like big horn sheep must be wrapped tightly in plastic and covered with duct tape to prevent the beetles from eating them.

In the last 12 years Haas has cleaned a tremendously wide variety of animals, including alligator, sea otter, fox, lynx, dog and about every Montana game animal imaginable.

Since starting Big Sky Beetle Works, his business has increased every year.

"It’s growing so much, I can hardly keep up with it," he said. "I have clients in 35 states. Last year I did 7,500 skulls."

Despite the fact that the skulls, at times, pile up to the ceiling at Big Sky Beetle Works, Haas continues to promote his business from coast to coast in wildlife publications like Outdoor Life and Field and Stream magazines and by sending out more than 10,000 brochures a year.

"When I started this business I said I told myself I was going to succeed," he said. "In 1992 there were only three businesses like this in Montana. Now there are more than 60."

Reporter Rod Daniel can be reached at 363-3300 or [email protected]