Need help saving deer mounts

[cbdunn21]

I just posted this in the "Serious Deer Hunting" forum, but just realized there was a separate forum specifically for taxidermy. I'm reposting here since this forum may be the better fit. Sorry for the double post.

Several of our deer shoulder mounts have started to show rapid degradation due to some kind of insect (I assume beetles). We have found the empty casings in the ears and below the mounts, clumps of loose hair, and straight lines that appear where the damage has occurred like you would expect. One mount is considerably worse than the rest, but surprisingly, the closest one to it doesn't show any signs of wear yet. The mounts are in two adjacent rooms, but each room has some that are affected as well as some that don't yet appear to be. We also have a full turkey mount that doesn't appear to be affected in one of the rooms; it is not the room with the deer that looks the worst (I read somewhere that turkeys can be a magnet for beetles, but not sure if that is true).

I searched for advice online and there was no shortage of suggestions. Extreme heat, freezing, bug bombs, insecticide, professional exterminators specializing in taxidermy (does this really even exist?), etc., but they all seemed to be controversial in their effectiveness or could adversely affect the quality of the mount. I contacted our taxidermist (who has now retired), and he recommended applying a 50/50 mix of borax and boric acid with a bulb duster, especially in ears and around the seam with the mounting plaque. We applied that pretty heavily a few months ago and twice more since then with lighter coats. We expected things to continue to get worse for a while because of the damaged hair that had not yet detached, but the damage seems to be continuing to spread.

So two questions:
1. Has anyone else had similar issues in the past that could offer some helpful advice on how to stop any further damage and hopefully prevent it from happening again in the future?
2. Can anything be done to repair the damaged mounts? My guess is that there is nothing that can be done for the damaged capes, but that a new cape could be purchased to replace the old one. I've never had to do either though so I am not sure what is possible or how expensive or difficult it would be.

 

[AT Hiker]

https://www.mckenziesp.com/QRTU-P24399.aspx

IMO, those mounts are gone. This product may extend the life, especially if they are tanned skins. It definitely will not hurt to try.

You could also get a very heavy duty trash bag and dose it with permethrin. Apply liberally to the entire mount and seal the bag for a couple days, it needs to be a highly concentrated permethrin dose and make sure it's not the oily livestock kind. If mold forms wipe it off with denatured alcohol. Be careful wiping as that lose hair will fall as well.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[cbdunn21]

Thanks for the response, but ouch, that's depressing news. I feared that it might be too late but was hoping there was a way to fix. Unfortunately, your comment in the other forum makes it sound like it would be at least as hard and expensive to fix as it was to do the first time... I know the older mounts were tanned and have just assumed all the hides were tanned, though I don't know how to tell so this assumption is pretty worthless. For what it is worth, the age of the mounts does not seem to be a factor in which ones were affected as a mix of old and new have either been affected or not.

We can treat each of the mounts one by one to hopefully salvage whatever we can, but it still concerns me about future infestations. Even if they stay away from the mounts, I wonder if the bugs will still be nearby waiting for a new mount or for the treatments to wear off. I also don't know how long either product will last so I guess we will just have to be cautious and treat frequently.

I wasn't aware of the threat of these bugs and can't remember ever hearing people complain about them. Is this a common problem for people that I was just unaware of, or did we just have a stroke of bad luck? I would think if this was a common issue that I would have heard other people talking about it.

On a positive note, hopefully others can learn from this experience and prevent a similar situation.

 

[AT Hiker]

Honestly, whether it's tanned or dry preserved doesn't matter a whole lot once the bugs hit it. Typically dry preserve can attract bugs easier, but neither are immune. Actually, if the skull plate or inner ear didn't have all flesh removed that could cause the infestation.

I have a tanned back hide laying on my concrete garage floor. I used to keep a dog bowl on it and would show clients what a tanned skin looks like and how durable they are. It's been there for 3 years and not one bug has gotten it, so to answer your question it's likely just a stroke of bad luck.

I also have a doe mount that has been outside and in my grandfathers garage for a couple years. I use it to mess with people and thought about using it as a "decoy". That mount has been through the ringer, is tanned and shows no sign of bugs.

Due note, these are my opinions and I'm sure another taxidermist will disagree with me but I speak from my experience only.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[cbdunn21]

I definitely appreciate all of your input. Hopefully others with experience will chime in as well.

Would you also recommend treating the turkey? Like I said, I read somewhere that turkeys can be magnets (I think the post referred specifically to the legs). I also have a shoulder mount of a black bear coming back at some point, so I'll be sure to treat that one immediately.

It's interesting to hear you mention flesh on the skull plate; we have racks from some deer that we did not mount hanging on the wall (though not in the room where the worst problems are). If that is a common source of these bugs, that may be where it all started. For those situations, is it sufficient to just ensure that all the hair and flesh is removed before displaying them?

 

[Woodsmaster]

I had a mount from a friend hung on my wall with my 5. One day noticed lot of hair on the floor under it. Turns out it had a bad infestation and most of the hair on the back of the neck and ears would fall out if touched. I freaked out in fear of loosing my mounts. I removed that deer from the room sealed the door. And set of bug bombs, then took a flea coller cut it in small pieces and placed them in the ears and behind the mounts. No more bugs