Comments on: What is the best way to wet preserve insects? http://www.preservegrowme.org/the-preserve/what-is-the-best-way-to-wet-preserve-insects/ Sat, 19 May 2012 08:03:59 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: dr. d. http://www.preservegrowme.org/the-preserve/what-is-the-best-way-to-wet-preserve-insects/#comment-2470 dr. d. Sat, 31 Oct 2009 18:27:59 +0000 http://www.preservegrowme.org/the-preserve/what-is-the-best-way-to-wet-preserve-insects#comment-2470 Two kinds of solutions are most often used. 1. Ethanol at 70% is the least obnoxious to work with. I used this to preserve spiders, which have soft tissues and don't preserve well dry. It helps to put a drop of glycerol in the vial to keep them soft and prevent immediate drying out if the ethanol evaporates. 2. 5% formalin is also a good preservative, but needs care in handling as it is toxic. The one thing you will find with both of these is that the colors of the insects will mostly leach out. They tend to last longer in many cases with dry preservation. Not much to be done about it though. I'd recommend the alcohol. Here's a site from an herbarium: http://botany.si.edu/projects/algae/collpres/liqpres.htm<br><b>References : </b><br> Two kinds of solutions are most often used. 1. Ethanol at 70% is the least obnoxious to work with. I used this to preserve spiders, which have soft tissues and don’t preserve well dry. It helps to put a drop of glycerol in the vial to keep them soft and prevent immediate drying out if the ethanol evaporates. 2. 5% formalin is also a good preservative, but needs care in handling as it is toxic.

The one thing you will find with both of these is that the colors of the insects will mostly leach out. They tend to last longer in many cases with dry preservation. Not much to be done about it though.

I’d recommend the alcohol.

Here’s a site from an herbarium:

http://botany.si.edu/projects/algae/collpres/liqpres.htm
References :

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