the methods to dry insects specimen

[timoinsects]

freshed hunted bugs takes time to be dried to preserve into stiff cards. sometimes it takes many days and sometimes maybe more soon which depends on the ways you use.
if to be dried natually by the temputure,this way may take many many days.
if to be dried by light bulb,how many watt light bulbs that you use? and the distance(by CM) between fresh hunted or wet bugs? and the time(hours,days) of use which depends on if the bugs are big or small?

i normally likes to storage/keep dried unspreaded specimen in air tight boxes rather than storage them into Freezer. how about you?











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[Khalid Fadil]

I store mine in envelopes in shoe boxes or used cookie containers with mothballs and silica gel.

[lucanidae25]

Most beetles I just dry them under sun but I dry any beetles with yellow in my fridge for 1-2 months. Sometime I also use a dehumidifier and you can even dry a big beetle with in 3 hours.

[starlightcriminal]

I store in the freezer to keep "fresh" for easy spreading unless I'm not able to easily get to a freezer. I admit, I have purchased dry ice and kept it in a cooler with me so I can freeze on the go, that way everything is still "fresh" when I get home. Works great if you are staying in a hotel somewhere and don't have a freezer available, or camping.

Drying I do mostly in an air controlled room on a few home-rigged racks, but I collect primarily Lepidoptera which are easy to dry generally. Things with particularly large bodies or for some of the beetles that I collect (does anyone really stay completely focused in their collecting? I can't resist, it's a neurotic compulsion almost I think) I will dry with silica too, in a sealed container. It's pretty fast.

[entoman]

I air dry my specimens but only after spreading and mounting them. For most butterflies and moths it takes roughly five days, four for smaller ones, and seven for large ones. Of course, I find that the speed at which a specimen dries is increased if it had previously been dried and relaxed for preparation for spreading. I have one large (for Florida) Cerambycid that I collected from a pool filter that was still flexible almost a week after pinning.

[jackblack]

When drying large number of beetles commercially I dry over 40watt light bulb , small insects and Leps go high in the drying cabinet and large insects lower down over the light bulb , as I live in an extremly wet and humid rainforest 95% humidity a good part of the year I dry insects one week in the drying cabinet which has napthalene sprinkled in the bottom , once dry I store in airtight boxes plastic /tupperware , never a problem with mould , just to air dry large beetles in humid conditions can rot , I have never ever had a customer complain about the quality of insects I supply commercially!
Cheers