Ethical Insects
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Drying

This part is fairly simple. You will leave your specimen on the styrofoam board, vellum, pins and all. Place this in a protected
indoor space that is dry and dark. A heated or air-conditioned room greatly helps, do not use a humidifier in this room. I generally like to leave my
for a minimum of 2 months to be on the safe side, though it can depend on the size of the insect. For very large ones, you may choose to leave it for up
to 4 months. It's important to write the date you spread the insect somewhere. If not on a corner of the vellum, keep a notebook or a computer file with
this information.

Mounting

There are 2 commonly used types of mounts for insects, riker and riker-style mounts and shadow boxes. What you choose will be up to your personal taste.

**Common Mount Types**
Riker Mounts		off-brand Rikers		Shadow Boxes
Pros:	Cons:	Pros:	Cons:	Pros:	Cons:
Classic look	No color choice	Same as Riker(sar)		Lots of looks and styles
	No hanger included	sar		hanger usually attached
secures specimen well		sar			relies on pin for securing specimen may turn
lid fits well			may have larger gaps, allowing pests easier access	Depends on box
easy to repel pests		sar			harder to repel pests

An additional note: With shadow boxes, gravity and any vibration will eventually take it's toll and the insect will probably fall apart at some point since it is only
held to the background with a pin. With Riker mounts, the specimen is held pretty tightly against the glass, so the same issues do not apply (unless your cat climbs up
and knocks it down :/ ).

For a Riker Mount or similar:

First remove the pin from your insect specimen. I have found that the easiest way to do this is to hold the tweezers tips up on the thorax of the insect and
gently press down while pulling out the pin. Sometimes they get stuck, and you can use the tweezer tips to remove any dried on goo (very scientific term) to make
it easier. Sometimes they get really stuck and you'll need flush cutters to just cut the pin as close to the thorax as possible. If this happens, you don't need
to worry about the back of the pin as it will just go into the polyfill in the mount and be hidden.

Remove the pins on the mount and open it. Carefully place your specimen in the center and gently press the lid on. Sometimes this can move the specimen slightly,
just re-position it until you are happy and close the lid tightly. Re-insert the pins. I also like to buy saw tooth hangers, insert the nails they came with through the
back of the mount and apply a bit of hot glue for security so I can hang the rikers on the wall. This is of course, optional and you may want to read the
preservation section for reasons why you may or may not want to do this.

For a shadow box: Open it and pin the specimen to the back. If there is not enough backing material to securely pin to, I would suggest adding a thin
piece of foam and covering with foamboard or fabric in the color of your choice. You can also get really crafty if you want and select some acid-free scrapbooking
paper or even make a collage with it and glue it to the foamboard with an acid-free glue stick.

Next: Pests