Trophy Mount - Dust found under the Mount

[Mckie Hollow]

I have a trophy Red Stag mount that I had done in 2005. Recently I am finding dust just under the mount on a table. I'm assuming that it may have a type of mite problem. Is this a fix that I can do myself with a certain spray or should I take to a professional?

[Empty Quiver]

Of coarse a professional would likely be better, but. I would (did ) put it in a large trash bag and then fog an insecticide in there. I'd make sure as little of the dope spray hit the mount, then seal it up, and stick it out on the front porch to freeze down to -15 a few nights and call it good. It stunk of bug spray for a day or so and no more troubles. For all I know the freeze did the work.

[Graybeard]

Had thta problem with some corsican rams years ago. I just sprayed them down good with bug spray and it seemed to take care of the problem and as far as I can tell did no harm to the mounts.

[crash87]

If you live in a cold climate, and what I mean by that is, where the temps get at freezing or below,  but preferably below zero. Take your mounts and put them outside, if you can or a garage or unheated porch will work. A few days will do it. That WILL kill anything that has taken up residenece and you will have no mess, smell, etc. with sprays.
                   CRASH87

[Buckskin]

Raid will work wonders.  It also is what many taxidermists use to give the hair a nice shine.  Works wonders on bears.

[catkiller]

What you have is known as carpet beetles and they will completely eat your mounts, skin, foam and all. they will infest your whole house and you need to have the house sprayed.I would take off the antlers and discard the rest!

[skinman]

That's unfortunate. A fella hunts a lifetime at times to get a nice trophy; been there. It comes down to how the animal was prepared for taxidermy in the first place. I would have a hard time counting how many game heads I have done over the past 24 years or so and none of my past customers have ever phoned me back. My policy when I had my shop was if you see anything going on with your mount, please don't hesitate to bring it back. Gameheads/Fish/Full/Upland Birds/Migrating Bird mounts.

In my experience, it would seem to me somewhere during the process from kill to mounting, something would have had to fail. Otherwise, I would agree that if that is not so, then you do need to have your home inspected.

Regards:

Skinman