Taxacom: Questions for insect collection people

[Mary Barkworth]

Thank you. Mustafe, can you find out about the availability of denatured alcohol in Somaliland?

mary

________________________________
From: Kipling W Will <kipwill at berkeley.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, January 7, 2025 9:32 AM
To: Mary Barkworth <Mary.Barkworth at usu.edu>
Cc: Taxacom <taxacom at lists.ku.edu>; Mustafe Abdulkadir Abdurahman <mustafe441 at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Taxacom: Questions for insect collection people

At least historically, e.g., in the USA during the Prohibition period, "denatured" alcohol was used. In some countries I have travelled to, when EtOH (the "drinking sort") was not available, ethanol mixed with methanol and isopropyl alcohol, to make it unfit for human consumption, was readily available. These additives can inhibit later use of tissues for DNA extraction, however. So that might be a factor to consider. But as far as I know, denatured alcohol works fine as a preservative. Hand sanitizer may have any number of proprietary ingredients that could impact the specimens in unpredictable ways.

On Tue, Jan 7, 2025 at 8:20 AM Mary Barkworth via Taxacom <taxacom at lists.ku.edu<mailto:taxacom at lists.ku.edu>> wrote:
If ethanol is not legally available for either killing or storing insects, what is the best alternative? Two that have been suggested are hand sanitizer (70% alcohol plus other compounds) and isopropyl alcohol. Are there other alternatives? Any comments would be welcome. Both legal availability and cost will factor into the final decision but, before looking into those, what would be the best alternative to ethanol, assuming it is legally available in Somaliland, the country where we are working?

Mary
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