Degreasing with acetone - for how long?

Hi, I have often degreased Ornithoptera bodies. I take the abdomens off and give them three baths, a couple of days each. I have used acetone, but usually Ethyl Acetate. I dislike the look of greased bodies and it can spread to the wings.

Thank you.

If you leave them i acetone for a day or longer, how do you seal it? Acetone seems to dissolve everything but glass.

I've read excelent Bill's ”three bath process”, but even there he doesn't say, how long is each.

So for now it (opinions) ranges from an hour to days. I need to degrease some Saturnidae, abdomens of Ornithoptera, and Goliathus beetle.

Any more ideas, experiences?

Anyone know if we can use acetone to degrease butterfly WINGS ? I have a rare Agrias that has its HW greasy but would like to know if we can put a full butterfly into acetoe, or if I will totally ruin it.

Thank you.

My singular experience with complete immersion was not a good one. I had a greasy wing stained Black Witch moth. I went with a friends advise and immersed it in acetone for 30 minutes. I removed it, and used a blow dryer on it to hopefully un-mat the hair on the body. Well, that did NOT fluff up any of the body hair and I even found that the long hair covering the hind wings partially looked worse and even somewhat matted after the immersion. The hair on the wings prior looked fine, sleek, and natural beforehand. So, I presumed that some of the leached out oils mixed with the acetone and created that (new) issue.

Also, then came the wing curling. In a very short time (in hours) both fore and hind wings curled (bowed) significantly "upward" looking very un-natural. I took the specimen to the relaxer and put it in for a day. I then re-spread it and used several glass strips to weight down the wings to hopefully make them flat again. Left it that way for a month...

I removed everything and found within a week the wings once again curled upward (bowed) just as bad as after immersion and within about a month it was greasing up again !

Now, maybe some would say that I did not leave it long enough in acetone to effect a truly good de-greasing. However, the "wing curling" issue WAS an after-effect of immersion (not before); and it only made things worse as the specimen looked so un-natural in pose. The weighted glass on those wings made absolutely no difference to making them flat again !

This was my bad experience as such. I would not recommend immersion myself particularly because of the possibility of wing curling. In my case, I happened to have another 4 witch moths which I had collected so in the advent of eventually being "displeased" with its overall appearance; I tossed it in the trash. No, great loss as I had others and the species is worth little money. However, yours is probably pricey and as you say somewhat rare so I would not mess with it...

If anything --- (and if its appearance bothers you enough); maybe re-sell it or trade it to someone less concerned about appearance. As we all know, most insects are a re-newable resource and some time down the road you will likely see another close in appearance to yours.

Just my humble opinion.

By "rubbing alcohol", you mean isopropyl alcohol right ?

You would use it the same way as acetone by immersing the Agrias one night in it ?

Scary story indeed trehopr, Agrias have thick wings so I hope it will be fine

Thanks a lot Chuck !
If it takes few second, I will dip only the hindwings (as the forewings are not touched by the greasiness).
And I will of course try on a cheap Agrias before.

My greasy specimen is a female Agrias phalcidon fournierae form viridiflavus. Can cost more than $800 on the market.

The problem with pure acetone is that it has a strong affinity for water and will dry specimens out too much, it can crack the wings of butterflies and moths. It can also have a bleaching effect as some pigments are soluble in it and gets leached out from the insect, particularly if the specimen is left to soak for more than a few hours. I have found that toluene is far superior as a degreasing agent. It is pretty non toxic, smells pleasant (in my opinion at least) and doesn't dry the insect out. 48 hours in a toluene bath at room temperature will effectively degrease most things.

Johnny