For those folks who kill and spread moths, I was wondering what you use in the killing jar. The traditional substance was cyanide. We used acetone when I was at Ag Can. I understand freezing makes moths stiff. I don’t plan on killing and spreading a lot of insects, but if I was to do so, what method are people using these days?
I have a spreading board, labels, and a range of pins, and am familiar with the process.
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In my field biology course we used ethyl acetate, but my prof said acetone also works. I’ll use acetone at home just because we already have it in the form of nail polish remover. We used ether to stun fruit flies in genetics, but if you left them in too long they’d die. It looks like some people use it as a killing agent.
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Acetone and ethyl acetate work. I think you just want to make sure that it is soaked into the substrate so it doesn’t wet the specimen and that there is enough so the specimen goes out quickly and doesn’t damage it’s wings.
You can also relax dried specimens that are stiff: https://bughunter.tamu.edu/collecting-and-preserving-butterflies/
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I think most nail polish remover these days is ethyl acetate.
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i mostly use the freezer for mostly micros…with the right humidity and patience I have no issue with stiffness. I’m rather new to this though, so my frame of reference is limited.
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The nail polish remover we have is 98% acetone, but I can’t say I have a lot of experience removing nail polish so I don’t know how typical that is. :)
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I remember ours was 98% acetone too. But I am pretty much in the same boat as you, lol.
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When I was in college (back when dinosaurs roamed the earth), we used acetone in the killing jar.
You can still get acetone-based nail polish remover if you shop carefully. I know this because I recently had to do a lot of repair work with gap-filling spray foam insulation, and acetone is the easiest way to clean up messes from that. But if ethyl-acetate-based nail polish remover works just as well in killing jars, you don’t need to go to the trouble.
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I also use an acetone kill jar, or the freezer. Typically I’ll freeze moths that I find close to my house, and I carry a kill jar when in the field.
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Related question: How long does it take for the moth to die in the killing jar? How would one incapacitate the moth before putting it in the killing jar without it flailing about and losing its scales? I heard you can pinch the thorax to essentially paralyze the flight muscles.
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Pinching too hard will result in unnatural thorax shape, so be careful with that.
Killing time in ethyl acetate seems to be around 2 h depending on concentration and moth size. With green moths one is better off with something else, though. The color tends to fade more or less towards yellow.
I haven’t had that much problems with jar damage with sufficient concentration, so I just put them in. That naturally depends on jar and moth size.
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Thanks for the info. I was mostly asking in a theoretical context, since I don’t collect.
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Further to that - when I killed moths at Ag Canada, we isolation them in a small container (perhaps stuck them in the fridge - I can’t remember), and just dumped them in. I haven’t killed or pinned a moth or butterfly since then, hence my question.
I hate to admit this, but as a child I would put butterflies into a jar with the substrate soaked in ammonia. I don’t think they had a good death, and that phase of my life did not last long. I feel like it is a dirty secret!
We’d place butterflies and moths in folded sheets of wax paper. This mainly helped stop them from flapping, but I guess it might also keep them off the plaster on the bottom and potentially getting wet. Getting them out of a net and into the paper can be tricky though and just takes a little practice.
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I know one micro-lepidopterist who dispatches small moths with 0.88 mol ammonia. the moths are cooled in a fridge first to stop scale loss.
Likewise for larger moths, chill first before putting in the bottle. Ethyl acetate is o.k., but specimens are prone to colour degredation (especially green pigments) and / or greasing. Ammonia avoids both issues and leaves voucher material relaxed for sufficient time to pin and set on the boards. Ethyl acetate also stiffens voucher material rather fast.
Personally, I freeze material that will be retained for voucher specimens, and if retained too long in the freezer (i.e. over dessicated) will rehydrate using a relaxing box. No issues with even relatively small moths (down to circa 7 or 8 mm wingspan). Very small specimens seem to be best chilled then treated with ammonia and set immediately.
It may be worth noting that material to be used for molecular analysis should be frozen or placed in 90 to 95% ethanol (ethyl alcohol) and not treated with any other chemicals so as to avoid genetic degredation.
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