# Beetles and bones



## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

Beetles and bones
GM worker goes buggy over ancient form of taxidermy 

http://www.mlive.com/outdoors/fljournal/index.ssf?/base/sports-1/114010878577540.xml&coll=5

THE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION Thursday, February 16, 2006 
By David V. Graham [email protected]  810.766.6306 

MT. MORRIS - Ed Schmitz is turning his bug hobby into a side business that he hopes eventually will become his job after he retires from General Motors. 

Schmitz, 52, of Mt. Morris uses flesh-eating Dermestid beetles to strip the skulls of various game animals so hunters can have a European mount for their walls or tables. 

A European mount is an old-fashioned taxidermy practice that uses bare, bleached skulls for a trophy mount, rather than the full mounts one commonly sees today. The practice dates back centuries in Europe and is becoming increasingly popular today.

Schmitz, a Burton native who is an avid hunter and a "buckskinner" living-history re-enactor, grew up fascinated with the skulls and bones he would find on backwoods walks in his youth. He said he has been interested in the old-time skill for years but started seriously researching it a few years ago on the Internet and other places. 

Nearly three years ago, he talked a practitioner of the ancient art into selling him 25 of the beetles. 

"He was a gentleman who lived out West, and he was a little reluctant to sell them because he was worried about the competition, I guess," Schmitz said. "Seventeen of the bugs arrived alive in the mail, along with a starter kit of whitening compounds used to bleach the skulls once the bugs are done." 

Since then, Schmitz has obtained a taxidermist license from the state and has prepared hundreds of skulls and bones. 

He hasn't advertised, but business cards and word of mouth help him find new customers. Some see his "Skull Skinner" logo on the back of his pickup truck. 

He charges anywhere from a few dollars for a squirrel skull to as much as $70 for a deer or black bear skull. That is considerably less than a taxidermist would charge for a more traditional mount. Some taxidermists will do European mounts, but Schmitz says they generally use a boiling method that can cause some shrinkage in the skull. 

Some of Schmitz's customers also like to have some stripped bones done so they can make the ribs or leg bones into knife handles or other objects, such as drumsticks, salt and pepper shakers, dice or toothpick holders. Some make them into jewelry, such as necklaces 

"Nothing goes to waste this way," he said. 

Great care is required for handling the beetles, which are known to eat not only flesh but also nearly everything else. 

"About the only thing they don't eat are metals, glass, ceramics and Plexiglas," Schmitz said. "You can imagine what kind of damage they would cause to a house if they got loose." 

They aren't the prettiest bugs, either. They go through eight molts as they age from eggs to the full adult size, when they are less than an inch long. They leave behind brownish-black hulls as they drop their shells, which look like dirt. 

Since their work is done in heated containers in Schmitz's workshop, the air reeks of rotting flesh and worse. The heat is required because the bugs will freeze or go into hibernation in the cold. 

His wife, Debbie, is pretty accepting of what many would regard as her husband's rather unusual hobby. 

"I think the beetles are interesting, the whole biology and anatomy thing," she said. "But I can't stand the smell. I won't even go into his workshop because of the smell. I like to see the skulls in the before and after stages, but the bugs are gross and disgusting, and they give me the heebie-jeebies." 

Schmitz has a more scientific approach to his hobby. 

"There is a lot to animal skulls that most people don't see," he said, adding that he has seen some healed spine and head injuries on deer skulls that he finds fascinating. "I have long had an interest in anatomy. 

"Most animals' skulls are basically the same, but really, each one is different in some small way." 

Ed Schmitz can be reached at (810) 919-2243 from 9 a.m.-7 p.m.


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