Pickle fork

[Thomas P. LeBlanc]

     Thank you to everyone that replied to my Email regarding Pickle Forks.
This up coming season will be my first year using envelopes and in the past
I always put the butterfly (that I wanted to collect) directly into the
killing jar from the net.  Then from the killing jar directly to the pinning
board.   Reading Winters  Memoirs 5 I have been learning other methods for a
bigger project that I plan to start this up coming season which will involve
me using envelopes.  So, many of these methods are new to me and I am still
trying to figure out why one would use some of these tools.

     So the Pickle fork is just a way of holding the butterfly without
damaging it with my big fingers!!  I didn't pick up on it going into the
thorax and being used as a handle.  I pictured it as being a tool that helps
with the muscles or somehow physically helped fold the wings so you wouldn't
have to touch the wings.   But, Winters , et al... suggest that "IF" the
wings fold under the specimen instead of on top of the specimen ( has
happened to me many times) the pickle fork would then be a quicker tool for
flipping it around for proper placement into the envelope with the forceps.
Got it!!

     My next question is to those that has used the pickle fork, does it do
damage (being you poke it into the thorax) to your specimens if you plan on
using it for a collection??  I would believe the more holes the hard to
preserve for a longer timeframe.   Speaking of preserving (might not have
reached this point in the book) but I have been told for a long time about a
spray that preserves the specimens from predators.  I tried to get some from
Ward's but they knew nothing of the kind.  Is this just the spray you would
get at an art store or something special I need to do some more
investigation on?   What does this spray do to longevity of the specimens in
relation to just mothballs (or both spray and mothballs)?

     Thank you again to all those that respond and please let me know if I
am still in left field with the pickle fork.

Thomas P. LeBlanc
192 Kent Blvd., Salamanca, NY 14779
Email: leblanct at netsync.net
.
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