An Exhibition at The Field Museum, Chicago

Preserving ants in clear resin?

The exhibit was a real treat.

I have a question regarding collecting ants and covering them with a clear resin?? or alternate material in order to make crafts/jewelry. I have experimented with trying to do this but I find the ants legs curl after dying and it is very difficult to recreate their natural state for my project. Collection is also a rather large problem for me, I always seem to be getting bit!

I also am concerned that if I ever did any large scale collection that it would do harm to the colony. Is there a safe amount of specimens to collect without doing too much harm?

Also, what is the best species for this? The larger the better!

Thanks,

Justin

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Permalink Reply by Corrie Moreau on September 21, 2010 at 12:31pm

Dear Justin,

I am glad you enjoyed the exhibit!

I have seen similar crafts/jewelry as you mentioned sold around the world. Since I have never made this kind of jewelry I cannot give you much advice about this, but here are some links to some posts at AntBlog about collecting ants and keeping ants:

http://www.antweb.org/antblog/2010/07/how-do-you-collect-an-entire-...

http://www.antweb.org/antblog/2010/04/how-to-make-an-ant-farm-john-...

http://www.antweb.org/antblog/2010/06/can-you-send-me-live-ants-ano...

Best of luck!
Corrie Moreau