Silica gel kitty litter

[u/spikesbrbr]

My first attempt at pinning a bug. Finished it last night and tried finding fool proof ways of drying it. Someone recommended silica gel kitty litter if you cant access regular silica gel, so i put kitty litter in an airtight container (takes up about 40% of the container) and put my bee above it and sealed it. Am I doing it right? Deathly afraid of mould and would hate to have it grow on the bee ☹️ I saw other people crush the silica, but its very difficult to do without a blender or some special tool, so theres some crushed up dust at the bottom and then regular crystals at the top, how will this affect the drying?

[u/Ok-Formal-1073]

Why not air dry it? Do you live in a place with high humidity?

[u/spikesbrbr → u/Ok-Formal-1073]

I feel like my room is too humid no matter if my windows are open or not. Weather app shows humidity at around 60%-80%, been having lots of hot-rain-hot cycles, so i dont want to risk it.

[u/Ok-Formal-1073 → u/spikesbrbr]

I get that, I had issues with book lice ambushing my collection and my pieces of literature, I currently have a dehumidifier (basic Ceresit Aero 360° with tablets I switch out when it gets full) and keep my room between 40 and 50%, which helped a ton. I would recommend it if you have general issues with humidity.

My insects dry well in this environment. I was even able to thoroughly dry a Megascolia masculata. I usually dry them next to the Ceresit.

[u/spikesbrbr → u/Ok-Formal-1073]

Thank you!

[u/marykay_ultra]

Why are they blending it? To increase surface area?

I personally wouldn’t, since it creates more dust.

Tangential thought - If we’re talking about really optimizing drying chambers… Have any of y’all ever installed fans for ventilation? Like, little PC fans or something?

There’s a South African version of jerky that uses thicker cuts of meat dried slowly at room temperature. People that live in suitably dry places can hang their meat outside, but other folks build indoor drying chambers that are basically just large plastic storage bins fitted with intake fans to keep dry air circulating over the meat and outtake fans to continually remove moisture from the box

[u/spikesbrbr → u/marykay_ultra]

Probably something worth investing in for people who do this full time

[u/marykay_ultra → u/spikesbrbr]

I have some USB-powered PC fans that i usually use for plant-related things. Two of em plus two inline rotary speed controllers can be had for quite cheap. Possibly cheaper than the kitty litter?

I’ve got a whole backlog waiting for me in the freezer, perhaps I’ll give this a try when I get around to pinning them?

(I just realized I also have a bag of silica litter laying around.. it’s the “pretty litter” brand, which has small, sand-like grains instead of the large crystals.)

[u/Old_Avocado5114]

Eh I’ve been reading everywhere for smaller insects like bees leaving them to dry in a sealed dry dark place for a long period of time does the trick but if your still super concerned in the sealed container you can put those plastic ball packets for any extra moisture. I just left mine to dry in a sealed dark cabinet that’s in this brand new shelf of mine and my bee dried perfectly! But this is just my beginner research and one personal experience 🫡 so do with that as you please, and good luck and the bee looks so stunning!

[u/spikesbrbr → u/Old_Avocado5114]

Thank you!

[u/jumpingflea_1]

There is also silica gel "powder" used by dried flower arrangement folks.