\u201cSuperworms are really fast compared to other traditional methods, they are more environmentally friendly, and their maintenance is super easy,\u201d Niloofar Alaei Kakhki, the study\u2019s co-author and a bioinformatician at the State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart in Germany, told Science<\/a>.<\/p>\n An art of trade-offs <\/p>\n According to the study, skeletal specimens are \u201cessential\u201d in museum collections and serve educational and academic purposes for experts and the public alike. However, preparing these specimens for display can be a grueling task. While examining and cleaning the bones, researchers must be mindful of preserving complex anatomical features, both before and after the specimen goes on display.<\/p>\n On that note, ineffective cleaning techniques can \u201ccause irreversible damage, diminishing both the scientific value and the utility for public display,\u201d the authors noted in the paper. Traditionally, researchers have used enzymes or chemical treatment, but this approach is expensive and potentially damaging for more fragile bones, they added.<\/p>\n As a result, in more recent years, leading museums, such as the Natural History Museum in the U.K. or the Smithsonian\u2019s National Museum of Natural History, have<\/a> opted<\/a> for biological cleaning with dermestid beetles. In many ways, beetles offered several advantages over chemical solutions, but they had their own issues as well. Namely, beetles could escape or leave behind undetected eggs, \u201call of which could threaten museum collections,\u201d the researchers wrote.<\/p>\n Searching the great insect world <\/p>\n The team behind the latest study wondered if another insect species would be better suited for the job. After all, there are more insect species out there than we can count<\/a>. The researchers decided on superworms (Zophobas morio), the larval form of dark beetles, for two reasons. First, superworms don\u2019t pupate under crowded conditions, so they won\u2019t infest valuable specimens. Second, they\u2019re commonly used as animal feed, meaning they\u2019re cheap and accessible.<\/p>\n As for superworms\u2019 cleaning abilities, the team\u2019s hunch was spot on. To be clear, at a certain point the worms did damage more fragile bones, but by testing different worm populations with different animal sizes, the team was able to find an ideal ratio for superworm cleaning services. According to the paper, this is about 0.35 to 0.53 ounces (10 to 15 grams) of superworms for every 0.035 ounce (1 gram) of carcass.<\/p>\n \u201cUnlike traditional chemical methods or dermestid beetle colonies, this approach preserves delicate bones, is environmentally friendly, safer for museum collections by minimizing the risk of pest infestation and makes colony maintenance much easier for museums,\u201d the team noted in a press release<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When cleaning up animal skeletons for museum display, curators have several options. They could use chemicals or enzymes…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":908441,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8],"tags":[7084,159,67,132,68,162977],"class_list":["post-908440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-preservation","tag-science","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-worms"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116852712182809427","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/908440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=908440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/908440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/908441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=908440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=908440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=908440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Superworm](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/superworm-cleaned-specimens.jpg\")
\u00a9 Monfared et al., 2026 <\/p>\n![\"Superworm](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/superworm-cleans-bones-1280x677.jpg\")
Sequential cleaning of a Hooded Crow (Corvus cornix ) specimen by superworms. \u00a9 Monfared et al., 2026 <\/p>\n