r/insectpinning

hello! not quite sure what’s going on here. Framed these earlier today and when I checked back on them, this white fog was on the glass. Does anyone know how I can fix this?

Edit: i was able to remove the frame again and it appears like a powdery substance?

Pics of him still alive as bug tax (if anyone would like me to remove the full body photo of him due to visible goo just let me know)

Hello! Sorry if this is rambly - I'm not a reddit user so apologies if this is improper etiquette. Pinning is something had an interest in for a while as a massive bug lover. At my job (a gas station of all things) the lights are unfortunately left on at night and when i come in during the day theres frequently dead or dying moths that got left behind when day came. Ive always admired them and then set them aside to decompose naturally, but I've always had the idea of collecting and Pinning them - an "imperfect specimens" collection showcasing the wide variety of species ive found there that I'd never seen in person alive before, all collected from my job, but I never actually got around to looking into it.

However the other day I came across a gorgeous male Polyphemus that was still alive but mortally wounded - likely hit by a car or dropped by a bird since he had external damage. Such a massive moth in my area is a rare sight and is what motivated me to finally take him home and give it a shot. He was still alive but barely when I got home and I transferred him to a container and frozen him so he could finely rest (it felt really bad - moths are some of my favorite animals, but one of his lower wings was literallt glued to his abdomen with his own guts and his intestines were hanging out his rear. He was not going to survive.)

I got a pinning kit and it should be here in a few days, hes in an airtight container in the freezer now as I wait, and ive found myself wondering - the kit is coming with size 2 pins, but I'm worried that those might not actually be big enough for such a larg bodied moth? Should be fine for the actual holding down the wings process of course, but for the abdomen.

Also, he has a spot of gut goo on his back from his injury, its dried down/frozen at the moment so i doubt ill ever get it All off, but any suggestions for removing some without doing too much extra damage to him? Im bound to make mistakes early on of course, which is why using naturally found imperfect specimens kind of removes some stress. Poor fellow is already missing a lot of wing scales with some see through spots, but i honestly think that makes him more interesting than another perfect moth. He has a story.

Another question - and this one is kind of stupid, but I know during the pinning process you pin through the torso itself, but in most people's displays there's no visible pins afterwards, how do people mount the bugs to their display boards with no visible pin?

And one more - if I wanted to make a display look nice by covering the foam with a piece of fabric, are there any materials I should avoid? I plan on using silica packets in the frame of course. Anyway. Thanks for reading rambling disaster of a post, thanks for any help!

Some of the legs snapped off when I was taking them out of the packaging. Is there anyway to reattach?

It was beautiful but without a abdomen or pedipalps... I found a way to make it "half complete"

One of my newest domes with some bumblebees :)

I found this guy outside one day and chose to keep it as a pet and now I decided to pin it after he died. I didn't have any other pins on me as this is the first time in a while that I have done this. How long should I let it air dry before storing it?

Instagram 📸 Ryan__Beetles

Forgot to take them out from hydration chamber and this happened 😔 I feel very bad. They were very good specimens.

Are there any ways to recover this?

Any tips on how to preserve this beetle? Some part of the shell is already cracked. (The length is little less than an inch.)

Hello everyone! New to the thread so bear with me, I have a beautiful Giant Leopard Moth that is ready to be pinned. I have always used needles and parchment paper to get the wings into place, but recently have wanted to try some soft forceps to not damage the wings. Is there a brand and maybe some pros and cons to using forceps that I should be aware of? Thank you for any and all advice!

For context, this is my first time ever doing bug pinning. I did it on the back of this cup and around 35-ish minutes.I recently ordered some more bugs from Etsy to try again because I had a lot of fun the first time, anyway, before I go for it and start pinning them, I wanted to see if there was anything I could improve on so I don’t screw up
(the bug you see was found dead in my cafeteria floor🥹)

I deleted the first post cause I forgot to include the picture 🫤

Hi hi, everyone.. I am brand new to this hobby & am struggling to find info on how to do this. I just finished these two shadow boxes this week. It is my first time. And I definitely did not make them as well as I wanted to. I was petrified of breaking them & did not pin the legs out the way I would want to. I’m so unsure what to do when it comes to bumble bees & other hardbodied insects. Any & all advice about how to stop shrinkage, pinning, supplies, etc. would be beyond appreciated!🫶🫶🫶

This is one of my tarantulas shed's that I opened up the adnomen of to find out it's gender (female🎉 yay cause they live longer :3) and I had to put it in soapy water to make it more movable and had to reposition it afterwards cause I want to keep the shed. Does my pinning look good? (The needle ontop is too weigh down the top bit that isn't attached to keep it in place

Instagram 📸 Ryan__Beetles