bug free pelts
My Dog caught a squirrel so I thought it would be a good idea to keep the pelt.
Its hide is cured but how can I make sure I am not introducing anything unwanted into my fur and feather storage bin? I think I have read somewhere that if i put it in the freezer for a month. but I can't remember where I read it. any sugestions? I don't think my wife will let me put it in the microwave so don't go there.
thanks, Jeff
Jeff,
Discussed at length on FAOL....suggest you do a search.
Forget the search. I'll tell you the way I store lots of material in containers in my garage and never found a bug. I use "Enox Moth Ice Crystals",not moth balls!!! It can be purchased where the moth balls are in stores. I put the crystals in a piece of ladies hose. The lable states Kills clothes moths and carpet beetles, bug eggs and larvae. The microwave is yours also---
My wife hates to go in the deepfreze if she knows I've been muskrats trapping my pond. I put them in a bag marked RAT till the trash collection on fridays.
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Bill
[This message has been edited by William Fitzgerald (edited 23 April 2005).]
Bill,
You mean you are not skinning and keeping the pelts? I am sure that you could trap enough in one season to last at leats three lifetimes if all you tied with was muskrat.
Brian
Hi Birddog,
First I clean and prepare the feathers or fur item with a good pet flea shampoo that also has a conditioner. Dry thoroughly with a hair dryer.
Next,I have a rubbermaid "Isolation box" where I keep "gifted" feathers and furs from hunting friends. I sprinkle a generous coating of borax (available in detergent section of grocery store) over the materials and add a generous amount of mothballs in the box as well. Close the lid (must be tight fitting) and let it sit for a couple of months. Then take the item out wash and clean it thoroughly again, and then use a hair dryer to make sure it is dry before storing but to be on the safe side I store all the gifted items separately from items which have been commercially prepared and purchased through a fly shop or other.
Have any of you used your methods on woodchucks, rockchucks, grounghogs....whatever you want to call them?
They are really critter infested so that I gave up on them but admit that my methods were rather half hearted. I think I'll have "access" to some in the near future and the fur is really a nice shiny golden brown. Maybe I'll try again and be more diligent if you think the methods would meet the challenge????
If I find any fresh road kills or something I shoot and it has a lot of bugs I'll double wrap it in trash bags and put in freezer for a few months. Take it out get rid of the trash bags and skin out the animal scrape the fat wash and stretch the hide stick borax on the flesh side leave set a few weeks till it's all dry and if you have to add more borax to suck the juices off the hide do so.Shake it to get all the borax off rewash hide and dry with hair drier and cut into useable pieces. Later Matt Groundhogs and foxes are the 2 worst ones I've ever delt with IMHO.Good Luck
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To each there own !
I'm not trying to be picky...
"leave set a few weeks till it's all dry "
where do you do that?... that's the stage where I have been vulnerable to those dxxx critters.
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