How you prepare insect?

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leekekhuan
Posts: 74
Joined: Thu May 21, 2015 7:38 am
Location: Singapore

How you prepare insect?

Post by leekekhuan »

Hi,

I found this bee dead a foot step of shopping mall.
Picked it up and kept in freezer for macro shot, but i realize it is very dirty due to dust stuck on her.
Is there a way to clean dust away?

Image

Image

Thanks,

LEE.

rjlittlefield
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Post by rjlittlefield »

Try http://www.slideshare.net/sdroege/how-to-wash-bees and http://www.slideshare.net/sdroege/drying-wet-bees .

These come from the folks at the USGS Native Bee Inventory and Monitoring Program. See for example http://all-that-is-interesting.com/macr ... hotography.

--Rik

leekekhuan
Posts: 74
Joined: Thu May 21, 2015 7:38 am
Location: Singapore

Post by leekekhuan »

Thank Rik.
I am not sure what i will do with out Photomacrography forum and helpful people like you.

I always think bees are very delicate and always handle them with care but reading at the slideshow it seems like bees are very tough.
Will prepare next week for clean and dry bee :).

rjlittlefield
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Post by rjlittlefield »

One caution: the bees that USGS is cleaning may be fresh caught or frozen, not dried.

Your specimen may be dry and brittle. Before trying to clean it, I suggest to soak it for a few hours in water, with a tiny bit of alcohol or detergent added only if necessary to make it wet the specimen.

--Rik

leekekhuan
Posts: 74
Joined: Thu May 21, 2015 7:38 am
Location: Singapore

Post by leekekhuan »

Yah, my bee is frozen in freezer.
Normally how you guys store your specimen?

Will this alcohol work?

Image

leekekhuan
Posts: 74
Joined: Thu May 21, 2015 7:38 am
Location: Singapore

Post by leekekhuan »

Do anyone store the dead specimen?
I was thinking to wash and keep bee or any other found dead specimen for current and future photographs.
Any thoughts?

rjlittlefield
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Post by rjlittlefield »

Yes, that alcohol will work fine.

I usually keep my specimens either a) dried, in tight boxes to exclude dermestid beetles, or b) in the freezer. Even in the freezer, specimens will gradually dry out as water evaporates from the specimen and collects as ice crystals on the container. The drying process almost always causes the appearance to change.

The best way to get a specimen that looks live, but isn't, is to work with fresh material.

Next best is to work only with hard-bodied subjects such as most beetles. Even there, it is common for the eyes to form cracks or separations between layers ("silvering") that an experienced viewer can immediately recognize as dead and dried.

--Rik

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