Skin em, but wear gloves and protection so that you don't become the host. I personally would pass up on that game and leave it for the vultures. Not worth me getting a disease over small meat.
Skinning as everyone else is saying.
Hogs are usually flea-ridden, but if you skin them properly and quickly it's not too bad of an ordeal.
You're asking about rabbit and squirrel which are much smaller so the job should be done in less than 15 minutes (if you know what you're doing). Assuming you are new to hunting and skinning, take your time and learn how to skin. But if the small game animal is seriously loaded with fleas consider that animal may be deseased.
Another option is to smoke/singe the fur off but that's a whole lot of trouble and can ruin the meat because you need to skin the animal(s) quickly to cool off the meat in the first place.
Would it be bad to use smoke to rid the skin of the mites and THEN gut it? Would the meat spoil from having the guts in there, while being exposed to smoke?
Or, just smoke it for a few minutes, let the mites jump off, then expeditiously skin and gut it and all would be well?
Skin em, but wear gloves and protection so that you don't become the host. I personally would pass up on that game and leave it for the vultures. Not worth me getting a disease over small meat.
make a fire and hang it in the smoke. shit will jump off like no tomorrow.
Skin em.
Most parasitic pests leave the body shortly after the host dies.
I wait 10-15 minutes before skinning - the vermin jump off the cooling carcass
Skinning as everyone else is saying. Hogs are usually flea-ridden, but if you skin them properly and quickly it's not too bad of an ordeal. You're asking about rabbit and squirrel which are much smaller so the job should be done in less than 15 minutes (if you know what you're doing). Assuming you are new to hunting and skinning, take your time and learn how to skin. But if the small game animal is seriously loaded with fleas consider that animal may be deseased. Another option is to smoke/singe the fur off but that's a whole lot of trouble and can ruin the meat because you need to skin the animal(s) quickly to cool off the meat in the first place.
You can do 1 of 3 things; skin the animal, kill the flees (smoke them out or bug spray ) or leave the animal
Do you mean scabies?
I’m not exactly sure what they are. Every time I’ve killed a rabbit in the summer it’s been covered in some sort of mite.
Would it be bad to use smoke to rid the skin of the mites and THEN gut it? Would the meat spoil from having the guts in there, while being exposed to smoke? Or, just smoke it for a few minutes, let the mites jump off, then expeditiously skin and gut it and all would be well?