Ethanol

[Drake]

I am looking at a better way of preserving my bug samples. Is ethanol the best way to go? If so, is there any place close to Sandy that sells the stuff?

Thanks

[steelie]

If so, is there any place close to Sandy that sells the stuff?

Thanks

State liquor store - goes by the name "everclear". It is about 95% - you can knock it down to about 60%-70% with water, I'd use distilled. That is the cheapest rout to go, if you want to get fancy and spend a lot of $ - you can find the top-notch denatured stuff at most universities. Up here at USU they have a place called the "chem store", cost a lot and will require a bunch of paperwork.

I've used:

Isopropyl - discolored and disolved some bugs
Ethyl Acetate - great for about a year, discolored almost everything after time.
Lab grade Ethanol - great stuff.......for Donald Trump
Everclear - have a few bugs 5-6 years in the vial - still look great.

[GotFish?]

You can get denatured alcohol at Home Depot for about $10 a gallon. The benefit to the Everclear is that it is consumable in an emergency.

[«°Ñøvã°»]

MMMMMM pickled bugs

[Jason]

Orvis has some Bug Balm that has worked well for me.

[steelie]

The benefit to the Everclear is that it is consumable in an emergency.


yep, done it a few times - all you got to do is strain it through a coffee filter..............wait your probably not talking about stuff that already has dead bugs in it............

[Lonnie]

Ture story.

One of my Professors in grad school was a Herpetologist/Ornithologist (reptiles/birds). He worked with rattle snakes and burrowing owls. For part of his research, he spent some time at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC measuring the length of rattlesnake rattles and a few other things from their collection. Now snakes and other reptiles are generally stored in glass jars/bottles of alcohol or formaldehyde (or some mixture of the two). The Smithsonian has an extensive collection of specimens dating back hundreds of years, so it's a pretty valuable collection. (This is what geeky biologists do, they collect things....) This story was related to him while he worked there....

Anyway, part of the job of the curators of the collection are to check on the bottles every few months and either top of or replace/refill the jars as needed. They noticed that they had to top off the jars more frequently than "normal". The thought they had bought jars with bad seals so they replaced the whole lot. This didn't solve the problem. They were baffled.

One night one of the scientists was working late and was preparing to go home. He heard the night janitor sweeping up the floor and emptying trash cans. About that time, the sweeping stopped and he heard the distinctive sound of clanking glass and the unscrewing of a lid. He walked around to corner to investigate and found the old man drinking right out of a jar with a long dead and pickled turtle in it. Turns out the janitor was an alcoholic and had been doing it for years. They gave him early retirement and a trip to the rehab center to dry out...

[Drake]

Pretty funny Lonnie.

I don't drink, but I thought everclear was pretty expensive.

Jason, is the Bug Balm expensive? How many little vials will it fill?

[Lonnie]

I don't drink, but I thought everclear was pretty expensive.

Yes, and a good portion of the cost is the "sin tax". Welcome to Utah. I bet it's still cheaper than bug balm (which is just ETOH and Isopropal)

Denatured stuff you don't have to pay the taxes (since you can't drink it), but it's more expensive to make. It's fairly simple to make so you could always brew and distill your own.. Oh wait, no you can't. Never mind.

L

[Scotto]

Drake,

On of my entomology buddies showed me a neat trick for preserving lepidopterous (butterflies and moths) and coloepterous (beetles) larvae. If you are having issues with them discoloring in ethanol, you should first boil some water in the microwave and place the larvae in the boiling water immediately. Let the larvae stay in the water for ~1min followed by placing it in the ethanol container for preservation.

Good luck,

Scotto

[Hopper]

I grew up in the midwest, they stored it right next to the milk.

I'll bet a short trip to Wyoming would secure a stash. Hey, isn't that on the way to the Green??? That's almost like having two excuses!

Hopper