i have a few bugs— a scorpion in a wet specimen jar, a pinned death’s head hawkmoth, a loose cicada waiting to be displayed, i think a dry scorpion also lol.
i began preserving my dead orchid mantis cherry today, here are the notes i took:
1. thaw cherry for 10 minutes
2. pin her
3. put droplets of rubbing alcohol on her
4. let her dry
1. ive put cherry in a handmade sauna to thaw her, it consists of a very small amount of isopropyl alcohol and a splash of boiling hot water, just enough to soak up one square of kitchen paper, she is sitting on top of a small square of styrofoam so she doesn’t touch any wet surfaces, im leaving her in it for 10 minutes to guarantee shes fully thawed, im hoping the ethanol will help prevent her from rotting later on
2. ive laid her down on a larger piece of syrofoam and began pinning, it’s difficult.
emotionally its really difficult, i hate seeing her like this. i refuse to put any pins into her body. i tried, i couldnt bring myself to, i know shes gone but i cant bring myself to hurt her. i wont be stuffing her into that little vial, my baby deserves so much better
3. i pinned cherry into a position where she nearly looks alive, i put little drops of the ethanol on her to prevent rotting, shes darkened just a little but i think (i hope) its because shes wet, it really wouldn’t be noticeable if you didn’t know her,
its weird, her eyes are dark, of course they are but its so weird. no pupils. before she died i could still see her looking at me.
it felt so wrong to pin her, i did it differently to how people tend to, i refuse to have my baby stay permanently in such a scared position, i think she looks like shes standing, her head is slightly tilted up and to the side. her head was so delicate to move, i was worried id decapitate her somehow.
4. i have to leave her a week now, to dry fully, i wasnt sure where would be best to put her but i found a dry dark place, i’ll check on her occasionally to make sure nothings changed.
she wont fit in the vial i bought for her, so i decided to put all 3 of her molts in there instead, i filled it with the isopropyl alcohol and it looks beautiful
now i can at least have a part my little love by my side always
photos under the cut incase anyone doesn’t want to see them
Unfortunately the sweet little luna moth passed due to natural causes :[ i set her on my dresser for now until i can get some insect pins, she’s in a beautiful position right now.
And yes, that’s a small little harnessed tiger moth wing i found, and also she is infact sitting on my Pokemon shelf :]
She did lay eggs (around 15-17) so i’ve got them in an enclosure until i can find somewhere to put them where they have a food source!
I have a dead leaf-footed bug in my home and I kinda want to preserve it but like I dunno how or if it’s a good idea or where I would put it. But I kinda wanna know. And wikihow isn’t the most reliable source
Can anyone tell me how to best preserve spotted lanternfly wings? My only supplies are a small jar with a lid I'm gonna use to preserve the wings on, Mod Podge Dimensional Magic because I can't tolerate resin fumes and don't have any anyway, rubbing alcohol, vinyl gloves, plastic tweezers that have textured tips, and an intact dead lanternfly that randomly died on my window.
I've never preserved a bug or removed the wings off of one (I just want the wings), so I have no idea what I'm doing. Searching the net just gave me instructions on how to pin them, mummify them, or soak the bugs in alcohol, but none of them were about lanternflies specifically and I know their wings are fairly delicate.
(Also I really fucking hate bugs even dead ones so any advice on how to not scream or puke as I handle it or remove the wings will be greatly appreciated.)
I made the awful decision to go to Amethyst cove, which in order to get to you have to climb down a 500ft cliff at an angle. I also wasn’t expecting the path to be eroded so much which made it an anxiety filled nightmare (I’m also afraid of heights and falling 🙃)
The cove is supposed to be known for the amethyst, quartz and agate you can find everywhere on the shore but people go through and pick the amethyst clean. We did get a lot of quartz and possibly some amethyst but overall the climb was so not worth it. This is one of the pieces with quartz we picked up
I’ll post better pictures of them tomorrow because I’m absolutely exhausted
However I did get lucky enough to find 2 Luna moths! The bottom one was alive but was being eaten by ants and died shortly after and the top one was found on a rock. They’re in pretty rough shape but Luna moths are one of my favourites so I’m more than happy to have them until I can get a perfect one for my collection.
