u/from_canadaland

Also if anyone Knows how to help preserve color…

Context I live in New England

We have these bugs called lantern flies, if you’re on this forum, you probably know what they are. Anyway, they look super cool, but are also super invasive and dangerous for the trees around us. We are told to kill if we see any because of how heavily invasive they are. There’s this tree near my house and last year, it was completely covered in these bugs and I had no problem killing them. The thing is I recently got into bug pinning and I hate killing things(in general) without “reason” but I also sell my art on Etsy and as a vendor. I thought to be more sustainable and not waste any part of the animal that I already feel like I need to kill, it would be interesting to use their wings to make art and earrings to sell. If you don’t know the bug, they are gorgeous and beautiful. I saw someone on TikTok do this and somehow it felt OK when they did it but now that I’m thinking about doing it myself something feels wrong about killing them. I did it with no hesitation when I saw them attacking a tree but the idea of putting them in a jar and freezing them seems more cruel than just stomping on them.

Overall, I think I just need second opinions on what to do. So please 🙏

Also, sidenote, I was thinking of donating some portion of the art to charity preferably one supporting wildlife protection and need inspo for one to donate to.