• Support the Moscow Mechanics
  • About Us
    • Contact Us
      • Volunteer & Internship Opportunities
    • Our Vision
    • The HIS Board
    • Community Educational Partners
    • Corporate & Foundation Support
  • STEM Resources
    • Your State/Province
      • United States
    • Resource Reviews
    • Elementary
      • Elementary Science
      • Elementary Technology
      • Elementary Engineering
      • Elementary Math
    • Secondary
      • Secondary Science
      • Secondary Technology
      • Secondary Engineering
      • Secondary Math
    • 4-H STEM/Science Curriculum
    • Conference Excerpts
  • FIRST Robotics
  • Creation Resources

Homeschool Institute of Science

Just another WordPress site

August 5, 2014

Start your own insect collection

kaufman insectsNecessary supplies:

1) 1 piece of 12 in x 12 in foam board (dollar store, just cut to size)

2) A jar with a lid

3) Cotton balls

4) Isopropyl alcohol, acetone, or ethyl acetate or some baggies and your freezer

5) Straight pins. You can order insect pins from bioquip.com or hometrainingtools.com. Regular straight pins work just fine and cost about $5.00 for 100 or so

6) An identification key such as a field guide like the one above or the one at bugguide.net, or a key designed specifically for insects in your state such as this one. Learn to identify insects to order. Some common orders include: a) Coleoptera – beetles; b) Hymenoptera – wasps, bees, ants; c) Diptera – flies, mosquitoes.

Guidelines: Keep the chemicals away from young children. Lightly dampen a cotton ball with the chemical of choice and put it in the “kill jar” with lid on tight. Alternatively you can put insects in a plastic baggie in the freezer. They die very quickly this way and there are no chemicals to worry about.

Collect insects, place them in kill jar or freezer. Identify them and then, using a glue stick, cut out and stick the order label on the form board, placing the insects in that order beneath the label. Download a pre-printed sheet of the most common insect orders here.

Now time to pin. Be careful. Be gentle. You will need to make a pin block which could simply be several squares of foam board glued together to the desired thickness. This graphic will explain why.

For some more advanced pinning, including butterflies, and to make a more meticulous pinning board watch this clip.

A big thanks to HIS, Inc. board member Dr. Gordon Wilson for his expertise in designing and providing guidance for this post.

Have fun and get collecting!

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)

Related

Article by William Boyd / Activities, Natural History

This Morning in Creation

A short, periodic audio exploration of the richness of Creation, usually just a few blocks or miles from the … Continue Reading

Recent Posts

  • The Benefits and Need for Categories
  • Putting Life Into Categories
  • Current Projects
  • Blessing of the Dolphins
  • Iconography and the Woke Multiverse

Instagram

Yes it is.
Mantis wings
Praying mantis shed from student bug enthusiast.
Amos stepped on this little gem and then looked at it andcrealized he found something special.
Gettin down at Stevenson- Harmon wedding with my oldest son Cy and his littlest sister Polly. ❤️
Walk was legit in front of the goal. Wish I could have seen him play more. Check out these stats. "Graduated in 2000, First Team All-AMCC keeper with a 48-12-2 record and a 0.89 goals against average. He helped Frostburg State to three ECAC Championship appearances during his career."

PO Box 8605
Moscow, ID 83843
(208) 301-4737

The Homeschool Institute of Science, Inc. is a registered 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization. All donations are tax deductible.

Copyright © 2023 · Homeschool Institute of Science on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

 

Loading Comments...
 

You must be logged in to post a comment.