Pinning Bees Tutorial 

some bugs loose their color when pinned unfortantly, and I think that is true of cicadas (from my memory of seeing them in drawers). A bug could be pretty dry after a few days and would be too brittle to pin. If you want to pin the cicada then either rehydrate by putting in a container with moist paper towel, or put in 50-70% alcohol for a day or more. Being in alcohol will rehydrate enough to pin and may also have the advantage of getting rid of fungus that may be on there.

@@NashTurley omg thank you for the great advice! i should clarify that my specimen is a wasp called a cicada killer but i think your advice is gonna be a big help!

​@@phuzfaceI was lucky enough to get a cicada killer which was in the act of killing a cicada. They're attached to each other thanks to the cicada killer and floating in 70% isopropyl now.

@@someguy5271 what an amazing specimen display that must be!!🤩

I'm not familiar with this approach, I don't think research specimens are stored this way, but I could be wrong

@@NashTurley I'm using it to preserve them until I can afford the supplies to mount them in resin for educational aids

@@dougkyle685 can just use rubbing alcohol (70% isopropyl alcohol) which you can find most anywhere that has first aid supplies (drug store, walmart, etc)

hmm, not sure, just kinda generic wood. i actually prefer to use a piece of foam that's about 20 mm thick

Just leave in a container in the meantime it’ll be fine

Having bees in alcohol is not a necessary step, for example sometimes bees are killed by freezing or with a kill jar, but storing in alcohol is often convient or makes most sense if they are already wet (like from a trap). They can stay in alcohol perhaps indefinitely, but in some cases alcohol can make them brittle (especially if 90% or more) and more likely to break when pinning, but rehydrating them before pinning can get around that issue.

@@NashTurley okay doke thank you, I'm trying to get into pinning but it's kinda hard to find resources haha

I usually leave em in the jar till I wake up from passing out

You could do this first then if you change ur mind just dunk em in sanitiser later lol