mould. bane of my existance. bane of yours too, probably. i live in a very hot and humid area, and though my specimens are usually sealed pretty tightly, sometimes things still get a little mouldy. i noticed recently that my deaths head hawk-moth had suddenly sported an entire head of mould and before cleaning it, i wanted to talk here about what to do, why this happens, and how to clean your insects if this ever happens to you!
insect specimens have to be rehydrated to be positioned prior to pinning, and depending on the method this is done, they can end up going a little bit mouldy either during this process, or a while afterwards. my hawk-moth is the first specimen i ever picked up and i've had it for about 4 or 5 years now, and this is the first time i've ever seen mould! i can only assume it wasn't sealed properly during it's processing, and the overly hot and humid summer we had this year has spurred those mould spores into going crazy. here's how it looked this morning when i noticed it. it's grown a whole wig!
terrible. now, there's a few things you can do to fix this. first and foremost: if it's just dry mould, you can brush it off with a paintbrush and seal it up again. if it doesn't get humid, it shouldn't grow back. i did try this initially, but the mould came back with a vengance within a few weeks, so i scrapped that attempt and got a bit more involved with it.
xx✸ [ isopropyl wash ]
isopropyl alcohol will certainly kill off any mould spores, and is safe for use on insect specimens as it is a common chemical used in the rehydration and positioning process, but i would not recommend soaking the insect in it completely. if you want to use this method, you can take a paintbrush and 'paint' over your insect with the isopropyl. let it dry for a few hours before re-sealing it, as improper storage of a damp specimen is exactly why this mould happens in the first place. if its a fuzzy insect - like my moth - best place to dry it is in a airy, mildly windy place such as a window ledge (out of the sun!) or beneath a slow fan. this just helps the fuzz stay nice and soft and not matted :)
xx✸ [ acetone soak ]
your second, and probably most effective option, is to soak the whole specimen in acetone. this is what i ended up doing with my moth. the reason this is beneficial is because it effectively degreases the whole insect and breaks down and replaces any fatty water content with acetone. you can submerge the entire insect in acetone, making sure there's no pins in its body. if you want to do this, you'll have to complete the soak as though you are degreasing the insect, which can take up to 8 hours. you can pull it out before then, but you may end up with grease stains within a few weeks time. degreasing is technically part of specimen maintenance, but if they were prepared correctly, it shouldn't really need to be done. it sounds pretty involved and scary, but don't be too stressed about it :) it's better than mould!
once your soak is completed, you can pull it out to dry it in the same method as above; somewhere with airflow but not in full sun. make sure it is completely try before you seal it back into it's frame. the benefit of acetone is that it shouldn't relax the specimen whatsoever, so you won't have to reposition it before pinning it back to it's board. it will be very brittle after it's dry, but just be gentle and patient and you'll be fine handling it.
something i also did once this process was completed was to leave my moth in it's frame with a packet of silica gel for a few days, just to really ensure all the moisture was gone from the specimen. then, i sealed it back up and have not had any problems since! here's what it looks like a few months later!
