Preservation Ideas

[christina]

I have found two exuvia of the Brown Hawker in our pond and would like to show them to our grandchildren. The kids won't be here for a few weeks yet and was wondering whether there is a way I could preserve the exuvia until they visit. Any ideas please?

Thank you

Christina

[Paul mabbott]

There's no easy way to preserve them while retaining their colour. Two best options are (a) pop them in a plastic bag and stick them in the freezer - when needed thaw them out slowly; (b) put them in weak alcohol solution (iso-propanol from chemist at about 70% - vodka will work as well .... ) - this way they will lose their colour in a few weeks - but being exuvial there may be no colour to keep?

[christina]

Thank you Paul. You are right about the colour. The one found on Monday is a lot lighter than the one found yesterday. I think I will give the vodka (don't drink it) and iso-propanol a miss. I will take my chances with the freezing and hope it retain colour for when the kids arrive.

Thanks again for your tips.

Christina

[Stinky Bob]

I heard Chris Packam saying that he used hairspray on some bird pellets so it may work on this as well

[The Woodman]

Won't they keep well dry, in a small box between sheets of tissue to prevent rattling around and physical damage?

[AndyC]

I'm a bit puzzled by the freezing and hairspray options. I have the exuvia of a big dragonfly that I found on my garden pond over fifteen years ago. It is at the end of the day only a bit of dry brown skin (skin probably isn't the correct term!) and it has kept perfectly on a shelf in the spare room. It looks no different today than it did on the morning I found it apart from being a bit dusty!


Andy

[thunder]

Originally Posted by The Woodman

Won't they keep well dry, in a small box between sheets of tissue to prevent rattling around and physical damage?

I think that would be best. Any loss of colour will be mainly caused by sunlight, I think, so keeping them in the dark is important as well if you don't want them to fade.

henrya

[Gill Catton]

I have some just dry in a box too.

I was toying with the idea of setting them into resin and making door handles out of them, but decided it might make some scared to open the door! (though maybe that isn't a bad thing!)

[christina]

First of all, apologies for not responding earlier.

Thank you all for your suggestions. I will go with AndyC's suggestion and keep them on the shelf and away from direct sunlight. The grandchildren are arriving at the weekend and am sure they will ok till then. They don't appear to have changed in anyway (ie loss of colour) so I will keep them with my found bone collection once kiddies have seen them.

I did almost ask hubby if I could use some of his hairspray (don't use it myself yuk) lol.

Once again thank you all for your suggestions.

Christina

[Adam Cheeseman]

What you need is a Ferrero Rocher box and a dab of glue to keep the exuvia in place.