[Training] Creating A Teaching Pest Collection

I can’t find the mouthparts on this cockroach," a student once asked me when I was in grad school. I went over to his desk, trying to think of some clever way to help him remember how to find insect mouthparts. To my shock, I found that his skill was not at fault but rather he had a specimen of a headless cockroach. I call this the "missing body part" scenario.

Unfortunately, in my years of teaching insect identification, I’ve found the missing body part scenario is a common problem in collections people use for teaching. Insect collections can either be for taxonomical purposes or for teaching purposes. When you try to make one collection serve both purposes, you run into problems. The important difference in a teaching insect collection is that you expect rough handling of your specimens and prepare accordingly.

If you train new or experienced technicians or if you need to ensure that your sales consultants can identify bed bugs or any other new or unusual pest, then you need a teaching collection. Videos, CD-ROMs, and pictures cannot compare to being able to hold a specimen in your hand and examine it.

Assembling a teaching collection is easier than it might sound. I’ve divided the process into two parts. The first is gathering the specimens, and the second is preserving the specimens.

SHOW ME THE BUGS. If you walk into our training room at Batzner Pest Management, the first thing you see is two large cabinets. At first, you might assume that they house a large number of various videos, books, CD-ROMs, and other training materials. But I’ll let you in on a secret. That’s only half of what’s in them. The rest is filled with boxes full of specimens that people have brought in and I haven’t had time to put into our teaching collection.

I don’t have all these boxes of specimens because of a rodent-like impulse to store away things, but rather because of the huge number of specimens that are brought in for me. This is why this first step is the easiest part of starting a teaching collection.

Maybe the most obvious way to stimulate people into bringing in specimens is to ask them to help. But, this goes beyond just posting a general announcement asking people to bring in specimens. Instead, the next time a service technician tells you about an interesting pest, ask him or her to bring in a sample. The next time a sales consultant calls you to help her identify a pest, ask her to bring in a sample.

Once you’ve been asking people for samples for some time, you’ll realize that they will often ask you how to collect the sample. In years past, 35 mm film canisters, preferably empty, were one of the prime ways to collect and transport samples. But, as our society has moved away from 35 mm cameras and their handy film canisters, we have also moved towards an increased usage of prescription medication, so pill vials would be one of my primary choices for people to use to bring in samples. I would recommend that the pill vial is emptied of pills before use, unless you are planning on supporting a colony of drugstore beetles in the vial. Another option is insect monitors and glue boards. Asking people to bring in samples on monitors will promote the use of monitors in the field and turn them into a mini science project instead of just work.

Another key element in getting people to bring in specimens is your attitude and interest in specimens. Our marketing director told me about being bit by flies when she was out camping. I immediately asked her whether it was a horse fly or a deer fly. She told me it was too small to be either one. Well, this was interesting, I told her, because she might have been attacked by black flies, and black flies are so exciting. I told her some stories about black flies, and my excitement was contagious. Now she collects flies for me each time she goes on vacation, bringing them in to see whether we have the elusive Wisconsin black fly. If you get excited when a technician brings in a new specimen or if you get excited when your bookkeeper tells you what she found in her garden, you will start to get more and more specimens brought in.

You’ll know you’ve excelled in this first part of the process once you have to find places to hide boxes full of insect monitors, pill vials, and perhaps an occasional 35 mm film canister.

PRESERVATION. It may be tempting to leave your specimens on their glueboards and in their pill vials and film canisters. However, you would be taking your first step down the road to the missing body part scenario. Proper preservation is important to keep your specimens safe and develop a teaching collection.

When people bring in large specimens, generally anything larger than 3/4 inch, I’ve found that they are best preserved with a Riker mount (see photo on page 48). The mount is a box that is held closed by two large pins. Because of the sturdiness of the box, it is difficult to damage the specimen. The specimen itself is easy to see since the glass top of the mount is placed directly on top of the specimen. However, only half of the specimen is visible.

But there’s a common mistake people make with the Riker mount. It generally comes with thick cotton material to support the insect in the mount, too much, actually, to support your typical large specimen, like an American cockroach. Pull out a small amount of the material, so that the specimen rests firmly against the glass top but does not become crushed.

When people start bringing in smaller specimens, essentially anything 3/4 inch or smaller, I reach for my 1½-inch square magnifier boxes. With a slight magnification in the top, people can distinguish some small features without a hand lens. Also, because the entire box is clear, they can also get a side view of the specimen, which is important when examining, for instance, a moth fly, which can be identified by the way it holds its wings over its back. However, some people find that the magnification feature makes it more difficult to identify the specimen, as it looks larger than they expect.

Buy some water-soluble glue, such as Elmer’s glue, to affix the specimen to the bottom of the container. If the specimens are brought in on glueboards, just cut out the section of the glue board with the specimen on it and glue that to the bottom of the container.

Preserving softer bodied specimens, such as larvae, termites, and spiders, is far more challenging than either of the previous specimens. If you just put one of these in a magnifier box, you often end up with a shriveled, discolored mass. I have a sample of moth fly larvae that I preserved this way. I was fortunate that they shriveled only a small amount. However, they also turned from translucent white to jet black.

Many people put soft bodied specimens in vials with alcohol because the specimens maintain their appearance better than when they are dried. However, anybody who has built a collection in this manner can tell you the disadvantages. Specimens are difficult to examine through the curved glass, and the alcohol evaporates if the lids do not seal tightly. Also, they do not pass the most important feature for a teaching collection, that is, durability. If your alcohol specimens are handled roughly, you might very well end up with a pile of broken glass, alcohol, and damaged specimens.

Another technique is to hard boil your specimens, just as if they were eggs. Although this can be effective, be careful that your spouse doesn’t catch you in the kitchen boiling a pot full of flesh fly maggots.

I would recommend mounting your soft bodied specimens dry and unboiled in magnifier boxes. Preserve a large number of them so you can keep the ones that best survive the drying process.

Supplies for preservation can be obtained from any biological or entomological supply company.

CONCLUSION. Although we’ve primarily talked about preserving insect specimens in your collection, don’t let this limit you. What else do you need to be able to identify? Do you have a particular insect pest problem in an account? I have specimens of termite-damaged wood, Indian meal moth infested seed, and animal urine and feces.

I have recently realized that my collection needs specimens to train people in rodent identification. The methods of preservation are entirely different. I have a meadow mouse in my freezer at home, next to the Dutch chocolate ice cream, and soon I’m going to need to make room for a large male Norway rat.

The author is the training and technical services manager, Batzner Pest Management, New Berlin, Wis. He can be reached at tsnyder@giemedia.com.