1. You need tupperware, any size depending on how many specimens you are going to work with.
2. Go to pharmacy and buy some sheet cotton, or you can use paper towels. Either will work well, and a bottle of household ammonia.
3. Wet the first layer of cotton or paper towel and place it in the bottom of the tupperware container. Pour ammonia into the bottle's cap and spread it over the paper towel. Repeat this until the surface has been somewhat covered, but it need not be covered completely.
4. Place first layer of specimens (still in their envelopes) into the bottom and cover with a second layer of cotton or towels--once again dampened with water.
5. Place a second layer over that and cover with more cotton or towels and repeat until you've reached the top, or until you've reached the limit of the number specimens that you can possibly mount in one or two sittings.
6. Cover the top layer with dampened toweling or cotton and place the lid on. If the tupper ware container isn't self sealing, use electrical vinyl tape to seal it further. This tape is easier to remove and can be used to reseal the container after you've checked the specimens.
7. Most normal sized specimens should be relaxed in about 4-8 hours. Larger lepidoptera take about 24 hours. Beetles take about 2 to 4 days depending on their size. These times are based on a temperature of about 75 F. Softening will proceed much slower at cooler temperatures.
8. Place the container in a closet or in a warm room to allow humidity to rise in the relaxing chamber. Even though this is a wetter method for relaxation, the use of the envelopes keeps the specimens from becoming too wet. Check the specimens every 4 hours to monitor the state of relaxation that they are in. When they are as soft as the day they were killed, then mount them, imediately. If you can't mount them immediately, or can only do so many a day, place the container in the freezer to suspend the relaxation process. Don't worry, once it's thawed out, they will be ready to mount. It takes about 20 minutes for the container to thaw out.
That's it. It's not a difficult method, just a variation on the relaxation theme. It works all the time.
Jeff Prill
Ammonia also acts as a mold inhibitor during the relaxing process, even though, after the ammonia dissipates, mold can occur.
Alcohol is good to use, too, but I would veer away from using Isopropyl alcohol. The Coleopterists' Bulletin does not give it good marks for being soft on genitalia. Ethyl alcohol would be preferable.
Silly me (Bill Oehlke)! I once used a capful
of Javex bleach as a mold inhibitor. Fortunately I only had
two cynthias in the softening tin. They came out very bleached.
The ammonia works well as a mold inhibitor and probably hastens
softening, although at cooler temps of around 68 F, the process took
more time than indicated above.
I have also used injection method of hot water in a syringe to
soften specimens. Insert the needle where the fore and hindwings
join the thorax and inject slowly with wings up, body down, to avoid
getting water leakage onto the wings. You can probably get syringes
at the pharmacy (drug store)
for a quarter a syringe. That's where I got mine.
The one-time-disposable kind are fine for many
injections.
Ammonia and injection methods also work well in
conjunction with each other.
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