The oral secretions of the burying beetle Nicrophorus marginatus have been shown to be anti-microbial. The anti-microbial activity is diminished after heat or pronase treatment. Therefore, to identify the compound(s) that are anti-microbial, a detailed study of the proteinaceous compounds in the secretion was conducted. The protein content was quantified by BCA assay and enzymes were identified using chromogenic substrates and spectrophotometry. The secretion contains enzymes that would be typical in insect oral secretion: alkaline phosphatase, peptidase, and peroxidase. It does not contain the anti-microbial enzyme, glucose oxidase. Potentially the anti-microbial compound is a peptide because the anti-microbial compound must have fairly non-specific activity and not be easily degraded, which would be true of peptides. We therefore looked more closely at the proteases, which might play a role in peptide processing. Proteases were further characterized using inhibitors in the presence of hemoglobin, myoglobin, and casein. The secretion contains aspartic, cysteine, and serine proteases. These data are important in understanding the anti-microbial activity found in burying beetles. *This project was partially supported by NIH Grant #2 P20 RR16469 from the Nebraska INBRE Program of the National Center for Research Resources.