Two things strick me about this thread. First, a college not keeping a dermestid colony anymore due to cost. As an entomologist I'm pretty familiar with that whole system and since it was already set up the cost would have basically been nothing. Dermestids don't take water and they will live months without food. Throw in a little leftover food once in awhile and they would be happy. I think someone just didn't want to mess with it anymore.
Secondly, the difference between a rural area and cities. I've had horse, cow with horns and so on skulls and I couldn't even give them away.
I don't remember saying we stopped the beetles due to cost, but my memory lapses are well established among those who know me. I scanned back and didn't see it, but I may have said it somewhere.
Cost was not the issue. The school was putting no money towards the venture, I donated my time, and actually spent some of my own money to bring in specimens. When we first set up the tank, we had it in the "new" wing of the science building. However, one of the professors using the lab complained. They claimed there was an odor, no one else I talked to could smell a thing. Honestly, based on hints dropped, I gather there was some sort of territorial infighting going on, and I could have had the cure for cancer in there and still been evicted. Luckily, the physics dept agreed to let us use a corner area they were not using, and the beetles were moved to the "old" wing of the building. The physics students never even knew it was there, lol. This went well for a while. However, then the "old" wing was to be shut down for renovations, and the project was homeless again. We tried keeping the beetles in an enclosure outdoors made from an old refrigerator, but too much moisture got into the tank, and the beetles got mites. I asked around on a taxidermy website for mite cures, and was told there wasn't much to do except nuke the tank. With no stable or semi-permanent home for the colony, restarting it seemed like a lost cause. I am hoping, that with the "old" wing reopening this semester, we will be able to get the beetles going again. The trick will be finding an unused hood in which to keep the tank. We still have a freezer brimming with specimens, so the professor I am working with and I really want to get the beetles going again.
But the issue was never really cost. You don't have to feed these guys much to keep the colony going at low numbers.
And I believe you about the difference in skull value from area to area, lol. You just don't typically find a horse skull laying around while walking through an urban area. I keep hoping to pick one up someday!
