drying bugs

Get some "silica gel" from the florist or wherever they have it locally. After you've pinnedthe insect to a piece of card, put the card in an airtight container with the silica gel for as long as it takes...a couple of days, probably, at the most.

Silica gel comes in a powdered/crystallized/flaked form, they used to sell it at walmart in the crafts section years ago, in a cylindrical container. It's the same thing that comes in a tiny little bag that says "dessicant - do not ingest" in a number of products...the first that comes to mind is shoes.

 
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Oh, alright. that sounds easier than I thought it would be. I have a few packs of silica gel sitting around from some bottles of aquarium test strips and various old medication bottles. Thanks.

 
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I'm pretty sure that you can 'refresh' the silica gel, by baking it in the oven at a relatively low setting (maybe like 250 degrees F) for a while (just guessing but like 30 minutes). Oh, btw, you may want to remove it from the baggies it comes in before you 'refresh' it.

 
Yeah. Im not too fond of things bursting into flames in my oven. lol I'll give that a try if I have any roaches pass on soon...

 
I have some good luck immersing the bug in alchohol at let it preserve for a couple of weeks, then removing it and positioning it on a heat mat (windowsill would also work on paper towel) until it dries out- the alchohol dries fairly quickly. The resulting dried positioned specimen seems not likely to get mold or dry rot in anyway.

 
RosenKrieger said:
Matt, what kind of alcohol?
Click to expand...
:wacko: SKYY Vodka

No! Seriously, I used isopropyl (spelling?) alchohol (rubbing alchohol) the cheap kind in the big bottle at the grocery store. Its a percentage on the label because it is diluted with water. So it works for short term preservation, but not for long term specimen preservation as to keep it in a jar of it for a long time. Ethanol works best for that.

 
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