Oily substance coming out of a mounted moth

If you see another moth getting greasy, then break off the thorax before the liquid spreads to the wings. Then put the thorax into acetone. Let it dry again, take some glue and fix onto the moth again.

If you want to prevent this mishaps in future times, put your moths into to oven right after mounting. Heat the oven with some 70°Celsius (not more!) and let your specimes stay in there for 5 hours or so.

Yet another, even better method is to inject a special agent into the specimen that fixes the protein molecules. This must be done right after mounting the moth. However, the disadvantage of this method is that you will never be able to relax the moth again easily ( only with considerable difficulty). (However if you are sure that you never will have ro relax it again, this might be the best method)

This agent can be bought from "Fiebig-Lehrmittel", a company located in Germany. It's called CTS-Präparationsflüssigkeit. I'm sorry I don't know the exact chemical term. But I can try to find out, if you wish so.

Regards

By the way, I forgot to mention that your moth should still be fixed with paperstripes on you stretching-frame/ mounting board when you put the moth inside the oven. Otherwise the wings will bend.

There´s yet another method to prevent your moths from greasing: Before you mount the moth, cut open the thorax on bottom side and excavate it. Then stow it with cotton or somethin similar. Which is not so easy however, and bears the danger of deforming the moth.

I don't think that all of your other moths will start to grease, too. Some will keep dry, some will grease. It depends on how thoroughly the moth dried when you mounted it. The problem is that a lot of moths appear to be fully dried from the outside but are still moisture inside.

The name of the agent that fixes the proteine molecules is formaline also known as formol.

If you put them in the oven, you only accelerate the process of drying the moths. and the heat makes the proteine coagulate. In the same way as frying some eggs in a pan. Additionally, most ovens are fan-assisted, so that a lot of hot air is circulating in the oven, and circulating air dries the moth a lot better than calm air. The moth gets dehydrated. No moisture, no putrefaction.

Is Formol really that harmful to the moths? Didn`t know about that!

Regards

Right, oil doesn't, but as fas as I can figure, the oil only comes into existence by putrefaction / rotting proteines inside the moth. The moths don't have that oil in them when they are still alive. Or am I mistaken? If the moth is dehydrated, desiccated and dry as dust, then nothing can rot away or start to putrefy and turn into oil or the like.

If you dont want that the "hair" sticks togehther you can use a föhn (which you normally use use to dry your hair) to dry it.

hmm... if these moths contain fatty acids, then maybe slitting open the belly side of the abdomen and putting the edge of a blotting paper into it is already enough to prevent oily stains afterwards...

Good luck and please let us know if you have success with any of these methods!

Rgds!