# Moth Infested Turkey Mount



## 4 Car Garage (May 30, 2008)

My turkey mount is full of little white moths that appear to be eating the feathers. Any remedies to get rid of them or is it too late?


----------



## Linda G. (Mar 28, 2002)

Put it in a freezer and leave it there. Spraying it with an insectacide may stain/discolor the feathers, and may not work anyway. A freezer for a couple of months will work. 

Those moths came from larvae (maggots) allowed to hatch when the meat still remaining on the bird wasn't properly salted or cured by freezing for several months...you have to thoroughly use borax, kosher salt, or put the part of the bird you're mounting into a freezer to kill that larvae..if you mount the bird too soon after death without the salt or borax you'll have bugs...


----------



## 4 Car Garage (May 30, 2008)

Thank you for the help Linda G.


----------



## duxdog (Apr 13, 2008)

Are you talking about a already mounted turkey? If you are they are not maggots.


----------



## Linda G. (Mar 28, 2002)

Even if it's a 200 year old mount and the moths came from somewhere else, a freezer will still take care of the problem better than insecticide...


----------



## 4 Car Garage (May 30, 2008)

Would moth balls help in any way? Plan to put the mount in a large bag with moth balls and then leave in the garage all winter.


----------



## Big Buck (Feb 8, 2000)

What Linda said is a good idea, although you risk the mount having more damage for the freezer possibly. a birds skin is very thin and this could be a problem.

Personally, more questions need to be asked to determine if youre wasting your time on the mount that may not be any good now.

How old is the mount? 

If it is not that old, call the taxidermist and ask them how it was mounted, or preserved. let him or her know what is going in with it.

Where did you have it hanging? are there other mounts by this one? if so did you check them out.

Good Luck


----------



## Doug Bridges (Oct 10, 2010)

I would say a freezer isn't going to do squat for you.
What you have is an infestation. Not just on that animal but in the area that the animal is in. The ONLY way to get rid of the problem is to fumigate the area and all of your mounts. I would also say that they mount itself may be the draw for the bugs. If the mount was not prepped properly by removing ALL of the fat and meat, washed and degrease, the residual grease and meat that may exist is the calling card to the bugs. Dinner if you will. If you have them in one mount, you have them in more. Call a good exterminator and have them address the issue. Or, you can bug bomb yourself and hope you do the job correctly. 
As for what they are eating. They are most likely eating the skin and the underlying stuff that the taxidermist may have left in the mount. Because the skin is getting eaten, the feathers are falling out. You can look up dermestid beetles and see the handy work that is going on.


----------

