Dermestes sardous var. striatellus
Picture above: "striatellus" morph. By Andreas Herrmann on dermestidae.com
The biggest commercial dermestid beetle breeder of the European Union!
A hobby that kept on growing, together with the number of beetles, since 2017.
What are dermestid beetles?
Dermestid beetles are the variety of beetle species within the genus Dermestes. They are quite small, the adults generally not bigger that 10 mm. These beetles are nature's cleaning crew by eating carcasses and that is their main trait that characterizes them. The larvae as well as the adults feed on animal products such as meat, but they absolutely won't bite you in your living fingers while handling them. They are a relatively easy species to keep, even when you are new to beetle breeding.
These beetles can be part of the cleaner crew in bioactive reptile terraria and insect enclosures. They will feed on dead insects and sheds. Some species can also feed on plant materials including grains. Those species are more able to survive on a diet of kibble when carrion is scarce. All species are different in their qualities.
Due to their special diet, dermestid beetles can help you create museum-quality animal skeletons. The beetles work delicate enough leave bone undamaged and even cartilage often stays intact. Pet owners that would like a pet memorial in the shape of a skull or bones, may find the thought reassuring that their deceased pet is fuzed into a new life cycle during the cleaning proces and cleaned in a natural manner.
My dermestid beetles
My name is Sarah Mahie and I am an ecologist by profession. I gained my first colony of dermestid beetles, the species D. frischii, during my Bachelor study in Applied Biology. It's that exact colony that is still thriving in my care, since 2017, to this day! My interest in these beetle species grew quick and two years later, in 2019, I gained a colony of D. lardarius followed by D. maculatus. And it didn't stop there. In 2020 I established a colony of D. undulatus and in 2021 a colony of D. haemorrhoidalis. The newest addistions are from 2024, them being D. murinus and D. ater. I'm sure those won't be the last.
All dermestid beetles are kept in homogeneous colonies of a singular species and they can be carefully shipped throughout the European Union. You can buy different species of dermestid beetles in the shop.
My contribution to science:
- Currently contributing to the development of dermestidae.vercel.app.
- My beetles were used to conduct the following scientific research: Schoelitsz, B., et al. (2019). Ongewenste beestjes in de meelwormenkweek. Dierplagen 4: 4-8.
Read the article online (Dutch) - I was the first to record Dermestes frischii and Dermestes maculatus in the Western Sahara. January 2025. Read the reasearch paper online.
Dermestes ater var. aussie
After looking through iNaturalist observations, it became clear to me that the Dermestes ater of Autralia looks different from the regular form of the species. Even the paper of Liu et al. (2022), revising the the Australian hide, larder and carpet beetles, shows a photo of this local colour variety of D. ater. Since I haven't found this colour variation described in existing literature, I will call it the "aussie" colour variation for now.
Dermestes undulatus var. helmi
Dermestes undulatus is a very common (and beautiful) species, but it still harbors surprises. In natural populations, a few individuals with a deviant appearance have been found. In 2020 Dermestidae expert Jiří Háva made a Facebook post showcasing a rare colour variability of this species.
Breeding goal: Dermestes maculatus var. rufus
Perhaps you noticed the reddish hairs on the Dermestes maculatus beetles from South Africa in my previous blog post. I certainly did, and this colour variant caught my eye on multiple iNaturalist sightings from Africa. Not a singel individual from my own Dermestes maculatus colony, imported from America, show or have shown this kind of colouration noticeably. It makes me wonder.. Can this colour variation be purposely bred?
Dermestes beetles pollinating flowers
Today I stumbled across this particular sighting on iNaturalist that shows multiple adult dermestid beetles (Dermestes maculatus) inside a flower. At least six individuals! Huh?
Cleaning bones of the living
One of the most memorable pet commissions I got, was to clean the bones of a pet dog... that was still alive! The tail of the dog got stuck between a door and didn’t heal properly afterwards, resulting in necrotizing tissue and the last part of the tail had to be amputated. The owners didn’t want to throw away a piece of their dog, so they asked me to preserve the bones. This story isn’t stand-alone when it comes to cleaning the bones of amputated limbs – the following story is about a human.