Superworms can replace the virus by cleaning up the bacteria in the shell

Preparing skeletal specimens for display in museums or forensic studies requires that bones be thoroughly cleaned to remove any remaining flesh or soft tissue. However, the need for thorough cleaning must be balanced with the risk of damaging the actual bones. According to a new paper published in the journal PLoS One, the worms of the so-called “superworms” (Zophobas morio)—a common pet food—offers a useful alternative.

There are ways to clean up skeletal remains, such as burial, digestive enzymes, or drugs. But many have other problems, including damaging bones, taking a long time to repair, having money to buy, or using products that harm the environment. The use of dermestid beetles has been a good method of cleaning the skeleton because they can effectively remove the soft tissue without damaging the bone. The downside is that without strict adherence to restrictions, the virus can escape and lay eggs that hatch, creating a chaos that threatens museum collections.

Fatemah Rastekar of Ferdowsi University in Mashhad, Iran, and her co-authors hypothesized that strong larvae could provide the same benefits as beetles without the risk of being caught. One reason is that pathogens live throughout the life cycle, so they need to be controlled with difficulty; Superworm cleaning only requires the larval stage, which lasts 10-12 weeks compared to five to seven weeks for the beetle. And larvae don’t spawn in crowded areas, so it’s easier to monitor areas and reduce the risk of escape. But can the giant worms keep up with the clean-up of the beetles they’re fighting?

As the worm turns

To find out, Rastekar et al. collected several samples of different sizes and species and cleaned them using commercially available worms: Egyptian rosette, house mouse, rabbit, sparrow, Eurasian owl, owl, wild cat, and gray wolf. He conducted a similar experiment for comparison, cleaning the skeleton of a marbled polecat using a conventional boiling method to remove the flesh.