Taxacom: Questions for insect collection people

Tue Jan 7 10:48:31 CST 2025

Denatured alcohol or isopropyl alcohol works. Both are widely available in many African countries as rubbing alcohol in supermarkets/convenience stores or drug stores, or in pharmacies for medical purposes. Isopropyl alcohol seems to bleach the color of the specimens a bit after many years, so should probably not be used for permanent storage, but should be better than hand sanitizer.
Cheers

Frank

Dr. Frank-Thorsten Krell

Senior Curator of Entomology, Editor-in-Chief
Department of Zoology
Denver Museum of Nature & Science
2001 Colorado Blvd
Denver, Colorado 80205-5798, U.S.A.
Frank.krell at dmns.org
Phone 303.370.8244
Fax 303.331.6492
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-----Original Message-----
From: Taxacom <taxacom-bounces at lists.ku.edu> On Behalf Of Mary Barkworth via Taxacom
Sent: Tuesday, January 7, 2025 9:42 AM
To: Kipling W Will <kipwill at berkeley.edu>
Cc: Taxacom <taxacom at lists.ku.edu>; Mustafe Abdulkadir Abdurahman <mustafe441 at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Taxacom: Questions for insect collection people

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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