Quote Originally Posted by Joe Billingsley View Post
... some produce sugars and alcohols in their body fluids - their own personal antifreeze - but that builds up gradually throughout the fall season. It will dissipate when they are exposed to warm temperatures, which is one of the reasons to take the materials out of the freezer for a few days and then put them back in. Another reason is that some insect eggs are not effected by the freezing temperatures as the adults are but will become active right after they warm up. You get two shots at them.
Joe
This is exactly why the freezer works. First you freeze them to kill any that have insufficient anti-freeze. Then you thaw them and either they revive or they hatch. Then, before they can build up any anti-freeze, you freeze them again and kill all.

As for cleaning, I did receive a pheasant skin a few years ago and soaked it for a couple hours in a solution with Dawn and then rinsed well - hanging to dry. The feathers were glossy and easier to deal with, and you should have seen the sand and grit left in the water.
As for squirrel tails, once dried out - they have almost zero meat so they don't need to be skinned - they are wash in shampoo and then cream rinse. Soft and smooth tail hair results.