Preserving with Hand Sanitizer 

Anyone watching this now will know the value of hand sanitisers 😂

i need to meet more people like this guy.

I like using the round glasses because it magnifies the specimen

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.

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.

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.

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

An absolutely excellent demonstration and very much appreciated!!! Thumbs Up all the way, thank YOU!

Where is the best place to buy a single or small quantity of cuvettes?

I just have a passion just like this guy. I used to mummify the bugs when I was a kid

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?

This is awesome I just did my first dragonfly specimen THX!!

I have just found a dead queen wasp, so this has answered all my questions!

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?

Nice to watch this video with this very simple technique for the storage of insects. Best wishes!

Thanks for this super cool video!! I’m a preschool teacher and this is giving me life!

Very nice method! Thank you! Very interesting and creative.

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?

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.

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!

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.

Just came across this, thank you for the post my boys will really enjoy this.

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?

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.

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

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. :(

Amazing!! Will definitely try this out one day!!

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.

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

Brilliant! I am going to feature this on my blog!

Hair gel works amazing!!!

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 :]

oh, also what kind of store can I buy the containers you used in this video? I have bugs in a variety of sizes :)

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...

Merci, c'est très intéressant comme technique .

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?

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?

**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.**

this is so cool, I was wondering if you could use this method for spiders, if not what would I use to preserve 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.

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?

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!

Do you recommend any certain type of brand of hand sanitizer for this?

Do they do that at museums or did they still only use alcohol and pinning

I found a pretty big sized male noble false widow spider and this video was exactly what I was looking for.

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 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?

THANK YOU FOR THE INFO

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

Excuse me. Will this method do harm to the dissection work of the specimen preserved with this technique?

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

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?

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!

I found a small garter snake, less than a foot long. What do I need to do in order to make this method work?

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

Wow this is amazing

I had a problem when I did this mold starting growing within a beetle specimen , how do I prevent this

Thank you, going to try this instead of isopropyl

Can you use the hand sanitizer if you throw out the insects?

what kind of Material are you using ? is this epoxy or a glue ?

Can you preserve it in hand sanitizer after u left the bug in the freezer?

Can you also preserve butterflies this way or would it ruin the wings?

can I preserve flowers with hand sanitizer?

Hi Sam, do you mind if I cite your video into my research paper?

Ah shoot, no wonder. You're the only person I've seen address why exactly the drying process is so important in relation to the hand sanitizer. I found this gorgeous bumblebee in Ireland last year... I noticed it acting weird, then it literally died in front of me, so I collected it... and mistakenly didn't let it dry a week (being new to this hobby). Overtime, the hand sanitizer waters down and the specimen sinks. I have other bee specimens (one bigger even) that are suspended in the hand sanitizer just fine. But I think I put this one in the sanitizer too soon, so it becomes watery over months. I've redone it like 3 times over the past year (and it's my best looking specimen, ugh!). I'm wondering if it's OK if I pull it out again and let it dry for a week or two, then try again? Ideas?

would this work with a small jellyfish it was preserved in alcohol first?

Where can I buy the containers you were using?

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...

How much handsanitizer do I buy for my dog?

Pov: you’re here because you don’t want to have to buy whatever it’s called to make a wet specimen

How long does it preserve them for

Great idea!

Hi, how hard it this to do with small fish? Like a dead goldfish or something.

very helpful video

Nice video!

Thanks!

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?

Thank you so much. I 've just caught the biggest redback spider ever.

Are you using a standard 3.5 mL cuvette in the Preserving with Hand Sanitizer video? Thank you

How long do these generally last?

Wait do insect molts work for preservin?

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,

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

Sorry for the delay in getting back...don't often look at the messages here. They will fade over time (it is actually 65% alcohol), but not too badly. sam

I found a dead (probably fresh since I could still move its limbs) carpenter bee and I wish to know the very first step after finding a (possibly) freshly dead specimen before handling it with the hand sanitizer preservation. I say "freshly dead" because I can still move the limbs but rigor mortis has started setting into one of its limbs... 1. When you said "dried specimen", does it mean that the specimen has been dead for a few days and air-dried or dried after alcohol handling? Would also like to know the best way to make sure it doesn't mold up since I live in a tropical country of high humidity (Southeast Asia). 2. The specimen had some dirt on it so what's the fastest or safest way to clean it off? I'm so paranoid on accidentally destroying the specimen (it's a real pretty one to me) that I'm delicately cleaning it out with a damp cotton bud... 3. I got a liquid-ish hand sanitizer of 51% ethyl alcohol and 10% isopropyl alcohol... Is that safe in using it for the first preservation step (to be dried out)?

Preserved a Bumblebee in hand sanitizer 2 weeks ago and it still look like it did when i found it! 🐝

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?...

if I soak a dragonfly in hand sanitizer does it preserve the color

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?

I have a beautiful fluffy bumble bee, would this work for her? I have her in a corked little vile right now would I have to change the cork and bottle or could I keep her in the jar?

Ya very nice I had made this and it also works.

how do you put a specimen in alcohol? do you just leave it in there for a couple days? i have a spider i want to do this too but i cant dry it out!

Started using casting resin...too expensive, too messy and toxic!

how many days it can be without decay

how do you dry them

This is different from bugs but what would I use to preserve a baby octopus tentacle?

Can i use acetone?

can we use glyscrene

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?