[NHCOLL-L:2354] Re: Insects and glue

[David Furth]

I and others have been using Elmer's or other water soluble "white glues" for over 50 years with no apparent problems.  Admittedly these are not perfect and do not always dissolve 100% (adding some distilled water when initially mixed may help), but they do dissolve enough to release specimens and their parts with out problems.  They also are no problem to freeze - a pest control technique used increasingly, especially in entomology.  
 
Also as has been mentioned Elmer's and other "white glues" may be a bit acidic, but this does not affect insect chitin and apparently does not affect the acid free papers entomologists have been using for specimen mounting or data labels.  Again, hide glue is another good water soluble glue.
 
***********************************************
David G. Furth, Ph.D.
Collections Manager
Department of Entomology, MRC 165
National Museum of Natural History
Smithsonian Institution
P. O. Box 37012
Washington, D. C. 20013-7012
Phone: 202-357-3146
Fax: 202-786-2894
Email: furth.david at nmnh.si.edu 
Website: http://entomology.si.edu  


>>> Doug Yanega <dyanega at ucr.edu> 06/17/04 07:50PM >>>
Jim Druzik wrote:

>I beg to differ on your comment about water soluble gums. Polysaccharides
>can crosslink but they are more prone to hydrolytic chain rupture which
>increases solubility.  Since they are fully amorphous you're just not going
>to get insolubility. Are you actually thinking about collagen adhesives?
>They can both look similar, and it's possible to find mixtures.

and Dave Furth wrote:

>My experience is also with small critters and with mounting 
>techniques and glues from around the world and going back well over 
>100 years.  I have not experienced the problems Doug mentions with 
>removing specimens or parts thereof with warm/hot water or with 
>dissecting them.

Which makes me wonder now whether I had been misinformed as to the 
nature of the glue used by Timberlake for his specimens, which are 
what most of my experience has been with (I'd been told it was 
water-soluble, and it doesn't seem to dissolve well in water, 
ethanol, or acetone). Is there any definitive method to distinguish 
the different sorts of glues? Also, is it possible that there is an 
interaction between the point and the glue when the paper has a high 
acid content, such that it alters the properties of the glue?

So, you're all saying that good ol' Elmer's glue is actually just 
fine and dandy? That certainly would simplify things...

Thanks,
-- 

Doug Yanega        Dept. of Entomology         Entomology Research Museum
Univ. of California - Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521
phone: (909) 787-4315 (standard disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
              http://cache.ucr.edu/~heraty/yanega.html 
   "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
         is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82



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