Preserving with Hand Sanitizer
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- Опубликовано: 3 май 2012
- This video demonstrates how to take insect and other invertebrate specimens and have them float (like magic) in a vial or cuvette filled with ordinary hand sanitizer. This allows you and the public (kids!) to manhandle the specimens without worry. The cuvettes are especially nice since they are plastic, square, optically clear, and can be looked at under the microscope.
Note that depending on the container sometimes the plastic/acrylic will crack becuase of reactions with the alcohol and superglue. Glass vials don't have that problem, but don't look as good.
NEW...we are now taking hi res pictures of specimens in cuvettes...check out:
www.flickr.com/photos/usgsbiml... 
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Anyone watching this now will know the value of hand sanitisers 😂
😁
Vodka works both ways hah
@@valeforedark Russian
Someone used their specimen fluid during lockdown for sure.
i need to meet more people like this guy.
Me too
Why?
@@antimassacr Cause they’re interesting and fun
Me too because of my subject😅 taxonomy
I like using the round glasses because it magnifies the specimen
Same
An absolutely excellent demonstration and very much appreciated!!! Thumbs Up all the way, thank YOU!
You can just leave them out for a couple of weeks in any room with air conditioning (to prevent mold)...alternatively you can soak them in alcohol or hand sanitizer and then transfer them to a final vial of HS. Tweezers or forceps are both fine, the finer they are at the tip the better. Depends on the kill jar, usually about 15 minutes will do, but if the chemical is weak then it might take more...you can also put them in the freezer for a bit.
How can I preserve a small goldfish. Seems crazy but I lost my fish and it hit me hard ik it's "just a fish" but it meant a lot to me is there anyway I can preserve it forever.
Try using resin ;)
alcohol
i am preserving my bettas
Swazi Hitler 27 I'm going to preserve my betta when he dies (just for memories) 😔
a catfish of mine that is only 2 cm died and i just preserved it with hand sanitizer that expired on 2014. i put it in the freezer and hopefully it will kill the bacteria at the end of the week
Yes! Great for doing super small things. My old school mate Wayne White gave me a vial of Bedbugs from larvae to Adult and I kept it in my pocket for a month...those bad boys did not move at all the whole time...still have the vial too.
I have just found a dead queen wasp, so this has answered all my questions!
Sorry for the delay in responding...I clearly dont' check my comment section very often!
Tweezers work fine! We just dry our specimens on open shelves protected from dust...we leave them in the kill jar for different lengths depending on the killing agent. In general a couple of hours is sufficient
Sam Droege What is fresh material? Also if my wasp got wet. How long should I let him dry out for? Should I soak him in alcohol before I put him in hand sanitizer? TBH I really like his fuzz and I saw it the first time I put him in hand sanitizer. Will the alcohol mess up his fuzz?
I just have a passion just like this guy.
I used to mummify the bugs when I was a kid
This is awesome I just did my first dragonfly specimen THX!!
Thanks for this super cool video!! I’m a preschool teacher and this is giving me life!
Where is the best place to buy a single or small quantity of cuvettes?
Nice to watch this video with this very simple technique for the storage of insects. Best wishes!
Just came across this, thank you for the post my boys will really enjoy this.
Very nice method! Thank you! Very interesting and creative.
Amazing!! Will definitely try this out one day!!
great video, thanks for posting. any advice on preserving birds? I often collect dead birds in my freezer, but due to not knowing how to preserve them, I usually end up having to get rid of them when I move out of an apartment. Sadly I have lost many good specimens and would like to learn how to keep them either in jars or some other way.
you can google up "cuvettes" online...no local store will carry them. However, regular vials work great and often are better since the caps are tighter.
I have a beautiful dragonfly, my dog took it down but its in great shape. To dry it out do you just leave it out for a while and eventually it gets dry? If so for how long? And is there a sort of cuvette that can fit a 4' by 4' dragonfly? Plz reply.
This is really cool, I wonder how it holds up over time, does it preserve long term as well as alcohol alone or does it start to get discolored?
Brilliant! I am going to feature this on my blog!
Great demonstration! Thank you! Would you be able to share with me which cuvettes did you use? Perhaps their brand and where to buy good ones. Thank you
Merci, c'est très intéressant comme technique .
this is so cool, I was wondering if you could use this method for spiders, if not what would I use to preserve them?
Hi Sam! I just happened upon a giant bumblebee laying perfectly intact on our driveway when I walked outside to check the mail. It's gorgeous and I want to preserve it for my son. Are we able to use this preserving method on it still, if it was found dead already? Is it still considered fresh and should we still let it dry out for a week?
Thank you for nice Video! Best greetings from hymenopterist (chalcidologist) to other hymenopterists! Good luck in Hymenoptera collecting!!!!
Hi. Can I check if this method works for preserving bee larva eggs?
im hoping it works on my tiny fry.. and just like you said it has to be a dry specimen. a tiny one especially soo that it is easier for the sanitizer
What kind of syringe did you use in the video for removing air bubbles, and do you know of somewhere I could find it? Thanks!
you don't have to dry the bug, but if you don't you need to either soak it first in HS or alcohol. For some reason the innards of bugs will dissolve the gel if the specimen is fresh...best would be alcohol.
Super glue is just a way of sealing the top...if your bottle is tight then you won't have a problem, but if it doesn't completely seal then the HS eventually evaporates out...
We starting out using casting resin....what a nightmare! had to do it under the hood, stank, messy, work time was minimal, bubbles stayed in....just never got the hang of it and my interns made huge messes and probably ultimately would have burned the place down or something equally disastrous
I have a butterfly (Monarch) dried out but shes more delicate now that she's dry. I want to display her in the "open" ...I was wondering if you think heavy doses of hair spray would preserve her?
will this work for a pet mouse? my baby passed yesterday and i do not want to bury him..i cant bare to bury him. :( he is in the freezer right now and i want to give him a nicer resting place. :(
look up online for a how to on wet specimens
What is fresh material? Also if my wasp got wet. How long should I let him dry out for? Should I soak him in alcohol before I put him in hand sanitizer? TBH I really like his fuzz and I saw it the first time I put him in hand sanitizer. Will the alcohol mess up his fuzz?
Anyone have recommendations for preserving a small caterpillar? I like to raise monarchs from my garden, but every year I have a couple who unfortunately die as larvae. A 2nd instar died this morning. Should I let it dry and shrivel up before starting the wet preservation? Does it matter whether I keep it in hand sanitizer or another kind of alcohol solution? Should I boil it first? It's only about 2 mm long. Any tips or links to helpful resources would be much appreciated!
might there be any alternatives to the syringe? i have some real neat cicada specimens i want to preserve but dont think i have access to a syringe like that
Hi there! I have a lovely betta fish and I was wondering if this method would work for it? I see some people inject their liquid of choice into the mouths and bodies of their animals, would I need to do so as well? He is my first betta and I want to keep him around after he's spent his time here in this life. Thank you in advance!
can I preserve flowers with hand sanitizer?
Hair gel works amazing!!!
Is it recommended to use an acrylic or polystyrene cuvette with HS? I am worried the alcohol in HS will crack the acrylic. I am not very experienced with chemistry.
Wow this is amazing
THANK YOU FOR THE INFO
Thank you, going to try this instead of isopropyl
Hey, Sam. I'm having issues finding Cuvettes for sale. Is it the 45mm cuvettes that you used? I've never actually worked with them and 45mm seems short to me?
Do you recommend any certain type of brand of hand sanitizer for this?
I have a big bottle of hand sanitizer thats lemon scented and has vitamin e in it. other than that its all normal. 70% alcohol. is tht okay to use?
Excuse me, my family found a beautiful, dead monarch butterfly and I want to preserve it. Both it's wings are slightly folded and I want to preserve it in such a way that it will be easily stored (not in a
Large box, maybe between two sheeted of plastic?) so that I can't take it out for drawing reference. I am short of resources, and would appreciate it if you could tell me an easy way to preserve it. Thank you. Great and helpful video, by the way, I'm just sad I can't use this technique.
I’ve followed everything you’ve done with a small scorpion. Scorpion was dried for weeks then soaked a week . I transferred to vile and used hand sanitizer with 70% ethyl . It looked great for a few days now he’s floating up and still oozing stuff from his body. Does this happen? Or did I completely screw it up? Help
Hey Brian
Sorry for the delay in responding...I clearly dont' check my comment section very often!
To minimize bubbles we soak in hs in another container prior to putting in the final container...
How long does it preserve them for
I found a small garter snake, less than a foot long. What do I need to do in order to make this method work?
Can you preserve it in hand sanitizer after u left the bug in the freezer?
if a specimen is already preserved but the liquid has leaked do I have to put it in lay in hand sanitizer a day before?
Can you use the hand sanitizer if you throw out the insects?
I had a problem when I did this mold starting growing within a beetle specimen , how do I prevent this
**I think they called glass Pasteur pipettes, not syringes. That needle thing is called inoculation needle, as the name suggests, it transfer bacteria or fungi to empty media or broth culture for culturing (growing) -- Hence inoculation. An inoculation needle is also used to pick a tiny amount of bacteria, in comparison with an inoculation loop -- for making gram stain, for example; or avoid picking up bacteria that you don't want.**
would this work with a small jellyfish it was preserved in alcohol first?
Do they do that at museums or did they still only use alcohol and pinning
Can you also preserve butterflies this way or would it ruin the wings?
Great idea!
What is the best way to dry bugs out? I've read you can leave them to air dry, but that could lead to the colors fading?
Dylan Snow Leave them in air. The colors won't fade. They will become fragile though, so I recommend you invest in insect pins which allow you to move them without inevitably breaking them. That is if you are not covering them in resin or hand sanitizer.
I found a pretty big sized male noble false widow spider and this video was exactly what I was looking for.
very helpful video
Nice video!
I've been interested in insects since a child and I've always wanted to learn how to preserve them but just recently decided to take action on it so I have a few questions. Do you let the insects dry out themselves or do you physically have to dry them? How long do you keep them in the "kill jar" before you take them out? Are tweezers really a much worse tool to use than forceps from your expirience? sorry I know its alot :]
Hi, how hard it this to do with small fish? Like a dead goldfish or something.
how do you dry them
I have a butterfly. Ive had her sitting in a jar forever and shes been fine. Shes dried out but shes more delicate now that she's dry. Would the hand sanitizer ruin her color? (monarch butterfly). This may be a stupid question.
***** It will likely shift the color since the specimen will be getting "wet" . It will work, but you have to do it carefully or the scales will come off in the HS and float around. Best to try on another specimen first
Preserved a Bumblebee in hand sanitizer 2 weeks ago and it still look like it did when i found it! 🐝
Wait do insect molts work for preservin?
How long do these generally last?
Hi Sam, do you mind if I cite your video into my research paper?
if I soak a dragonfly in hand sanitizer does it preserve the color
Where can I buy the containers you were using?
how many days it can be without decay
can we use glyscrene
what kind of Material are you using ? is this epoxy or a glue ?
Need some help guys, I am for the first time doing this, put my insects in hand sanitizer, but after a few days they started releasing a white substance from their body.
I am afraid they are slowly decomposing because of the hand sanitizer, from something that it contains.
Any ideas what is going on , do your insects also release white trails in the sanitizer after a few days ? or the hand sanitizer SHOULD contain only some ingredients and not some ingredients ?
Please if anyone knows,, thankss
I have collected live bed bugs how i should preserve them actually i have to perform.molecular identifictiom of bed bugs .
Do i need to preserve them.or kill them ?becauae i have collected them in vials
for molecular work the best is just to freeze them . If you are shipping them then you want to use 95 percent ethyl alcohol
How much handsanitizer do I buy for my dog?
Forsakennut lmfaooo
That’s funny! 😂
Ya very nice I had made this and it also works.
Can i use acetone?
I preserve black widows in hand sanitize and the specimens I have had in the solution for more than a year have leaked white fluid the either pooled around the body or settled. I do preserve in alcohol to start. Any advice?
Id soak a min of 30 days. I soak mine a few months. I've even had some soaking over a year because I forgot about them. They were preserved just fine. These were adults as well as smaller juvenile latrodectus geometricus and latrodectus mactans so they were pretty delicate. They went straight into hand sanitizer and have been perfect for several years. If for some reason they do start to collect some foggy type film around them you can use a syringe to extract the substance. This can also be used to remove any bubbles as well. I know you weren't asking me specifically. I thought I would just offer based on my experience. I've probably made 50ish different latrodectus variations in bottles in the last 4+ years.
Excuse me. Will this method do harm to the dissection work of the specimen preserved with this technique?
Thank you so much. I 've just caught the biggest redback spider ever.
Would this work on neocardinia shrimp? I have a shrimp that I'm rather fond of and would like to keep.
should work after dipping alcohol first
After seeing your item about putting de specimen in de sanitizer, I also tried it with succes but by some beetles
after 2 weeks their came a white cloudy substantion near de insect, around the legs and body. When i moved it with a stick in the substantion dan it disappeard but comes back after a few days. Do you no this reaction, and how can i prevent it?
easy, you need to presoak the specimen in a bowl or alcohol before putting in vial
Can I preserve a bird egg in hand sanitizer
You probably could, but I think the weight of Hamster is heavy enough that they will sink to the bottom of the container in the HS.
What are the process for the insect itself? Do you put a live insect in the freezer or in a container and let it dry out? or do you find dead ones in the wild?
n00bszpro you can buy feeder insects for practice but most go out and search for insects! You can also buy dried insects online
Thanks!
Would preserving a bug in a glass battle with a cork in it work?
I’ve placed it in the bottle, and some “fog” formed around the body, is there any way to fix this?...
I think that should work fine, my guess is the fog is from a "too fresh" specimen. Try taking the specimen out and putting fresh HS. sam
Will this work with slugs
whats the best way to preserve soft body insects?
can be done in the same way...but, as usual, need to soak in alcohol or hand sanitizer first...
Started using casting resin...too expensive, too messy and toxic!
I have done this preservation with vials, but the curved shape distorts perception of the specimen. In googling cuvettes I have yet to find some of the appropriate size for bumble bees - I will post here if I can find some - I am assuming that disposable olystyrene or other disposable types are fine (glass and quartz are much more expensive). Note that if specimens have been pinned prior to this process expect air bubbles and 'bug juice' to exude for a long time,
Could u do this for a wet specimen like a fetus of a lamb if it's small still?
I just want to say that i've tried this and it worked well with my small beetles but the bigger one i had (medium in size) got all torn apart, its legs, its head, and in the middle of its body a yellow liquid came out so it didn't work for that bug =/ All of them were dry for a long time until i watched this video
I know this comment is two years old but I'll respond anyways. What I like to do is let the insect sit in alcohol until it "pickles" and the alcohol turns a color usually brown. The next step I take its too replace that alcohol with fresh alcohol and let that sit for a week or two (you can even forget about it for a while) repeat as needed until the alcohol is clear. Now that it is pickled and clean, you are ready to place the specimen into hand sanitizer. Good luck to you. 👍
You put a fresh specimen in alcohol? Or should you let it dry out for like, a day and then soak it.
What if you put insect in a ethylene alcohol 70% ?