First trip to Alaska and got a nice black bear in Valdez.

I have already shipped it home and am curious how to clean the skull and roughly the cost for a rug.

Thanks,

Jeff

I would send the skull to someone who had a colony of dermestid beetles. Rugs average $100+ a square foot.

I did my son and my black bear skulls lat year, that we got in Idaho. Got this from my taxidermist and it worked great.

1. Cut all the meat off that you can possibly get.

2. Get a large pot that will hold the skull and fill with water. To this add a dash ow DAWN dish washing detergent, a cup of bleach, and the secret sodium carbonate. I bought it from a pool supply house, it is a ph regulator.

3. When water comes to a boil, turn down burner so it is simmering[soft boil]. Keep an eye on it because if you boil too long the teeth will fall out[ 1 1/2-2 hrs. but your mileage may vary]. When most of the meat has fallen of, take out of water and with a small scalpel or exacto knife trim off the rest of the cartiladge/meat as best you can. The brains in the skull have turned to mush, go outside and with a wire go in and stir it up, then take a hose and blow it out. It will all flush out. Leave the skull outside to finish bleaching/drying process.

Ours came out perfectly white, no teeth fell out, and no odor after drying outside. Whole process took about 4 hrs. start to finish, except for outside drying time.

Not to disagree with the above poster, but that's $100 a LINEAR foot, not square foot. $100-$135 should get it done for you. Good luck!

Mad Dog

You can do the boiling method but beatles work far better to get all the meat off. If you can't find any local taxidermists with beatles you can check out MOA custom skulls. I have had them do a deer skull for me and they did a great job. It is actually fairly cheap to start your own colony of beatles but they stink to high hell and you need a place to keep them warm. I just didnt' have room where I'm currently living or else I would have done it myself.

http://moacustomskulls.com/

Congratulations,I recommend skulls unlimted.

Wouldn't ants be able to do the same job as beetles? Here in TX I find lots of deer skulls etc that the ants have picked clean.