They sound as though they are the perfect plot for the beginning of any horror film, but a colony of flesh-eating beetles actually are some of the hardest workers at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum. Known as ‘dermestid beetles’ or ‘skin beetles’, these creepy crawlers are critical to the work the museum does. “These are beetles that we use to clean skeletons,” museum manager of collections Danae Frier told CTV News. “Things that come into our research collections, skeletons are cleaned in the research collections, get cleaned by the beetles. They’re really important decomposers within the world. It’s an opportunity for people to come see a little bit of a sneak peek behind the scenes and also learn more about decomposition.” As the Royal Sask. Museum gets set for Halloween, the beetles are on display cleaning an owl skeleton. Hundreds of larvae and fully-grown beetles are hard at work picking away at the left-over skin to fully clear the bones for Frier’s research team. They are a part of a larger colony with thousands of beetles. “Flesh-eating beetle definitely sounds a little bit alarming,” Frier added. “But fortunately, these beetles specialize on dead flesh. When something passes away, there’s a series of decomposition that happens. Usually flies will arrive first, when everything’s kind of wet; once the carcass starts to dry out, that’s when dermestid beetles will come in and start cleaning up the rest of the of the flesh.” While their escape sounds like the perfect genesis for Hollywood’s next horror-filled feature, Frier says they pose no threat to living humans. In fact, the bigger concern the museum has is if they ever got out amongst the exhibits. “If they were to get loose in our galleries, or within our research collections behind the scenes, they could wreak havoc,” Frier explained. “So we take lots of precautions to make sure that they don’t get loose.” The collections team at the museum would be unable to do much of the work the beetles do, making them a key piece to research and gallery set up. “We have research collections that people can come in and they can ask questions about the biology of different animals: skeletons can be an important part of that,” Frier said. “[The beetles] are really, really helpful in a museum setting because bones can be very delicate. A mouse skeleton or bird skeleton can be very small, so because these beetles are able to get into all the little crevices, they can clean those bones very well for us and keep everything very intact, which is great.” The dermestid beetles at work on the owl skeleton will be on display through Halloween at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum. “These things can seem a little bit creepy and people might think it’s kind of gross” said Freier. “But from my perspective, it’s a really interesting way to engage with some of these natural processes. So even if you think it might be a little bit gross; come in, have a look, and maybe you’ll learn something about our natural biology.”
