Taxacom: Questions for insect collection people

[Inte Kenaar]

Ethanol is not illegal where I live, but taxed the same as alcoholic 
beverages, hence practically unaffordable. I have used isopropanol 
(isopropyl alcohol) for years. It is cheaper, readily available, and 
does the job. I did not keep the reference, but saw a study comparing 
ant specimens preserved in different liquids which suggested that 
preservation in isopropanol is not an impediment to DNA extraction, 
although I admittedly have no experience of this. Colour loss is not 
worse than colour loss in ethanol.

Someone mentioned propylene glycol. Easy to find in many parts of Africa 
but only if you go to the right place: it is the liquid used in solar 
heaters, and suppliers of those also sell glycol. Nobody else knows what 
it is.

---
John Irish
Namibia

On 2025-01-07 18:19, Mary Barkworth via Taxacom 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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