Making a killing jar
If you want to get extremely close to insects, you may have to convince them to stop moving somehow.
Sadly I have yet to come across tranquilliser darts for bumblebees (if you know of any, post a comment!), so killing them is the only way to persuade them to sit still.
It sounds terribly barbaric, but it isn’t, really: If you make one of these jars correctly, you can kill insects quickly and painlessly. If you feel bad about it afterwards, you can always bury it in a tiny grave and sing it a song - make sure you get photos first, though!
Entomologists (that’s really just a posh word for people who collect insects) have perfected the art of killing insects as humanely as possible, by using a ‘killing jar’. To make a rudimentary killing jar, use a reasonably large jar with a tightly closing lid.
Cut out a circle of an old t-shirt or other thick cotton material, and make sure it fits snugly on the bottom of the jar. You’ll want a few layers of cotton. To this jar, add enough ethyl acetate (you can buy this from lab suppliers and hobby stores - be careful not to breathe it in yourself though, it’s nasty stuff!) to saturate the cotton, but no more. Put your insects in the jar, and leave them for a few minutes to kill them.
Wanna learn more? Check out killing jars on Wikipedia, or this article on the University of Illinois website!
For approximately ten billion more tips (and photos!) like this, check out my book - it’s on sale in exactly a month, but you can pre-order it today!
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I am rather proud of the fact that I have written a book about macro photography. It looks like that →
Hang on, did I just say a book? Sorry about that. All modesty aside, it's the book on macro photography. It's got a huge chapter on equipment, tons of info about the various styles and topics, a chapter on lighting, and even a chapter on digital darkroom stuff especially for macro photography.
Seriously, this book is 288 pages long, and it's got everything you ever wanted to know. And loads you probably didn't want to know, but that might come in useful anyway.
Get your copy of the book from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk today! If you prefer, you can buy a signed copy directly from me from this page.
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This entry is © Haje Jan Kamps / Photocritic.org, and was posted on Monday, June 11th, 2007. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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#1 - June 11th, 2007 at 00:11
I’ve never been into insect photography so I’ve never thought of this aspect of photography. My take is it’s wrong. Why is it okay, because it’s an insect? Is it size? Would you euthanize a dog, horse or elephant just to take it’s picture? Suddenly it doesn’t seem right, right? All because of size, all for a picture, ridiculous.
I’m not mad at you Haje, in fact the opposite. I never knew of this and am glad I do now.
Bobby
#2 - June 11th, 2007 at 00:24
Horses and elephants and dogs are significantly different from insects, it’s utterly STUPID to compare insects with large mammals. I don’t suppose anyone would think it cruel that rats and frogs are killed in the name of education in highschool science rooms. No, that’s for education - necessary evil. This is for a hobby - unnecessary “murder”. Right. /sarcasm
I bet just about everyone who voted “No way!” has smooched a scary spider or bug when it’s appeared where it’s not supposed to be at least once in their lifetimes. Murderers! What about keen gardeners who put down snail repellent? Murderers! Or those who put down rat poison (arsenic is a lovely way to die, isn’t it)? Murderers! Getting my point?
If it’s necessary to euthanise an insect to take a picture of it, by all means - I though I prefer things being kept alive is possible. I know chilling insects makes them easier to manage (at least, the bigger bugs are) and they’re fine afterwards. If it happens to die, feed it to a wild bird - it’s not like nature doesn’t pick them off in the same way. It’s better than being crushed to death by a fast-moving rolled-up newspaper.
#3 - June 11th, 2007 at 00:24
Whoops. “smooched” = “smooshed”
#4 - June 11th, 2007 at 00:48
If you want to shoot insects, catch them and then place them in the freezer for 10-15 minutes, then they will be more or less completely still for another 10-20 minutes while they thaw. Most insects (like bees) will be able to recover completely.
#5 - June 11th, 2007 at 01:31
I’ve done lots of insect photography but I have just found already dead insects. I’ve never had to kill any insects before to get the photo.
http://www.brianlarter.com/?p=399
http://www.brianlarter.com/?p=607
#6 - June 11th, 2007 at 02:09
I’m looking forward to your book :)
Once I get a hold of a copy, expect to see at least a mini-review show up on goldengod.
#7 - June 11th, 2007 at 03:34
OK, well this seems silly. What is the point or challenge if you are going to cheat to take your photo? Isn’t the whole point to see if you can catch that special moment? If you could just freeze time anytime you wanted, to take the photo you wanted, then there would be nothing special to you capturing it.
The point is to see if you can capture that special image, at the special time. If you kill it you are cheating.
#8 - June 11th, 2007 at 08:00
I don’t believe it to be acceptable
I saw a smart hint about taking insect shots in a pro book which suggests cooling them a bit into the refrigerator
unfortunately I don’t recall the link but the tecnique explained how to make them stay still without going to the extent of killing them!
#9 - June 11th, 2007 at 08:14
Hmm, interesting stuff. I spend a fair amount of time taking macro photos of insects - but if I wanted to get anything as close up as the photo you’ve put at the top of this article I can’t see how you’d ever do it without the insect being stunned/chilled/dead.
Thing is, though, I quite like the challenge of taking photos of insects on the move and doing stuff they do, bees in mid-flight, stuff like that. Which works just fine for moderately close shots and slow moving insects like greenfly and ladybirds.
I think if I wanted a photo of a bumblebee any closer I’d have to wait until I found a naturally deceased one; I feel uncomfortable with the idea of killing something just because I wanted a photo of it. Sentimental perhaps but there y’go. And I’m not particularly happy about things being killed for classrooms either, and I garden organically, for the record ;)
#10 - June 11th, 2007 at 08:38
Every single one of these macros was taken without killing the insect: http://www.burrard-lucas.com/tag/macro.html
Ok, you can’t get quite as close, and it definitely takes more time, effort and skill, but the result is a more natural shot of the creature in its environment (looking alive):
http://www.burrard-lucas.com/gallery/peru/manu_biosphere/manu_macro/jumping_spider.html
http://www.burrard-lucas.com/gallery/london/wetland_centre/macro_photos/common_blue_butterfly2.html
#11 - June 11th, 2007 at 10:24
For my Biology Course we were required to capture kill and cure insects (approximately 100 students having to collect 20 insects each) So this doesn’t phase me to much.
You can simply use Nail polish remover (but make sure you check the label that it contains ethyl acetate). Alternative you can place them in the freezer for a short period of time 20mins usually did the trick (5- 10 mins puts them to sleep and they will recover shortly, don’t wait too long or otherwise they will freeze and be ruined).
Once the insect is dead you have to “position” their legs and wings carefully don’t wait too long or they go stiff and you can’t move them anymore, also the longer you leave them they start to loose their colour and luster so its best to photograph them early.
Otherwise you can just simply photograph them alive :).
#12 - June 11th, 2007 at 12:08
To me there’s something wrong with the IDEA of saying “oh, that’s pretty. Let me kill it.” I don’t see how a kill jar is much more humane than just smashing an insect with your foot. There’s nothing more immediate than simply ceasing to exist in a fraction of a second. Certainly suffocation is a slow process if your metabolism is as quick as an insect’s is.
So, would you see a mosquito, take a picture of him, then smash him because he’s sucking your blood? Same concept, really, and no matter how many millions of mosquitos there are (and how many I swat), killing something you’re trying to appreciate just seems wrong.
#13 - June 11th, 2007 at 22:29
every time a wasp stung you, it was trying to kill you. they don’t think twice about killing you, why should you care about them? also, how many “rare” inscts are there? they outnumber us a billion to one!
you get a lot of bleeding hearts (mostly girls) that say “you don’t need to kill them, freeze them” how long will a bug stay frozen under hot lights? not very. and why should you save them in the first place? in the grand scheme of things, bugs are the bottom of the food chain. kill all you want, there will always be more
i like to kill them with hairspray. first, it clogs up their wings so they can’t fly. then it gums up their spiracles and they can’t get oxygen and die. it also gives them a nice sheen
#14 - June 12th, 2007 at 02:04
Nate, I don’t need to kill a wasp, because I can function above a purely instinctual level. Wasps attack you because they feel threatened by you. It’s attempting to defend its hive.
Would you kill all the wasps in the world? What about all pollinating insects? While we’re at it, how about poisonous plants? Heck, just kill anything that might attempt to defend itself against us. Your dog is the first to go.
I really hope your message was satirical, because it’s extremely naive.
#15 - June 12th, 2007 at 12:38
you could kill all the bugs you wanted every minute of every day and you couldn’t put a dent in their populations. your argument is ridiculous. there are as many bugs on the earth as grains of sand. they are almost everywhere. should you use restraint with dragonflies/butterflies/ and other species that may be protected by law? of course. one example of a malaysian butterfly can get you serious prison time
wasps also attack because they want to eat you, especially in the fall right before hibernation. it seems ridiculous to us, but that’s what the poison in the stinger is for–killing and paralyzing prey. in wasps, it isn’t a defense, it’s an offense
#16 - June 12th, 2007 at 13:36
Why couldn’t you simply capture the creatures and throw them in the freezer for awhile? Flash freezing insects will allow you to manipulate them while they’re still in a submissive state. You can even tie a string around you bee and take it for a walk once it’s thawed out!
#17 - June 12th, 2007 at 22:25
Nate, care to cite some sources that support what you are saying about wasps?
Generally, wasps and other stinging insects only attack if you disturb them. You may not do it in purpose, but still they interpret your action as an attack, so they defend themselves by stinging you. Wasps only eat cicadas.
This article has good information about wasps:
http://www.argonaut.uidaho.edu/archives/072501/newsstory8.html
You may find the following excerpt particularly interesting:
“Wasps and yellow jackets have multi-use stingers with which they will sting a host several times in order to escape or stun them. This is why wasps are typically thought of being more aggressive than honeybees.”
#18 - June 13th, 2007 at 11:26
There is a way to do this without killing. I don’t know if it is any better, but I have succesfully pfotographer several bees withiout killing them.
Just drown them into water (in jar FULL of water) and wait until they stop moving. Then you have many hours to photograph them while they stand still. Later they have allways come back to consciousness.
It is just much easier to stunn them with water that kill them without damaging their body.
#19 - June 13th, 2007 at 14:00
“…you can kill insects quickly and painlessly…”
“…put your insects in the jar, and leave them for a few minutes to kill them…”
Maybe the ethyl acetate numbs them from pain, but a few minutes seems an awfully long time to be suffocating/dying! If I absolutely had to kill an insect for a photo, I’d probably invest in one of those static electricity dischargers that look like tennis rackets.
#20 - June 14th, 2007 at 09:53
I think nate has a screw loose somewhere! As one of the earlier posters stated, why does size make a difference? Just because they are smaller than us does not mean they have any less right to be here than us humans. We are all here for a reason. It’s a spiritual thing, dare I say it.
If you have to, chill, but don’t kill them :-)
#21 - June 14th, 2007 at 15:42
kill them for fun! insects are poor subjects anyway
#22 - June 14th, 2007 at 16:16
Nate, are you American? ;-)
#23 - June 15th, 2007 at 03:05
not by choice. i live in the state of denial, my official language is sarcasm
#24 - June 15th, 2007 at 17:18
One aspect that nobody seems to take into account is the viewer.
Are you lying to your viewers?
Are you trying to make them think “this is an alive creature”?
Would they feel cheated if you said “this is really a dead creature”?
Would they be horrified if you said “I slew it specifically for this photograph”?
Considering those questions, do you, as a photographer, feel that dishonest photography is OK, even when the lie might completely change a viewer’s feelings about a photograph?
http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0309/lm22.html “[W]hen Lennart Nilsson presented the rewards of his work to LIFE’s editors several years later, they demanded that witnesses confirm that they were seeing what they thought they were seeing.” - you don’t get awards for making lies.
Would any of these photographs have meant the same if they were staged?
http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0309/lm12.html If this were not an execution? Or if the photographer had *asked* for a prisoner to be executer so that he could take the pic?
http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0309/lm11.html If this were never taken with a human hand, but was montaged together from dozens or thousands of telescope photos and satellite images?
http://static.flickr.com/34/64091304_f5b8f36ada.jpg is an iconic image: but would it have the same weight if you found out it was staged?
Whether the nature photographer photographs real nature or cadavers is a matter of personal morality: and so is whether they deceive the viewer (if just by omission) into believing it to be a true natural photo.
For me, I would feel like a liar, and I feel that anyone who respected their viewers, their craft, their subjects or themselves could feel it moral.
#25 - June 16th, 2007 at 02:23
Are you just trying to see what people will say? Good one! Your shot on EarthshotsFreedom fells) is pure relaxation. Thanks!
#26 - June 16th, 2007 at 16:48
i don’t disturb or manipulate what i shoot, so killing the bugs is of no interest to me, if i can’t get the photo on my own then it’s not worth shooting.
#27 - June 17th, 2007 at 01:11
the picture of marines raising a flag at iwo jima was staged. is it somehow less “iconic”?
to compare shots of bugs (live or dead) to the icons of photojournalism is like comparing poorly composed birthday shots to ansel adams. or a sears portrait to the mona lisa. bugs are insignificant stock images, alive or dead. a shot of bugs isn’t going to change the world
#28 - June 18th, 2007 at 10:39
I’v done a lot of macro-photos and only one insekt that I was photographying was dead (the fly). All insect survive photo-meating with me without any deamge.
Here are my insects (for now there is something about 370 photos): http://www.arczi79.yoyo.pl/index.php?option=com_expose&Itemid=37
#29 - June 18th, 2007 at 18:43
[…] Photocritic photography blog The Photocritic DIY photography projects blog « Making a killing jar […]
#30 - June 19th, 2007 at 23:46
All photography is a lie. As soon as you compose a shot you are taking a subject out of context since you can not see what is out of frame. Long exposures lie, timelapse exposures lie. There have been techniques used in the dark room since the creation of the medium that contribute to the image being manipulated. In the modern day we use Photoshop in a similar fashion as using different films, chemicals, filters, burning, dodging.
If you are looking for truth you will not find it in photography in my opinion.
As it relates to the killing of bugs for photography purposes, I don’t have a problem with it. I don’t do it but I don’t have a problem with it anymore then I have a problem killing the ants that seem to follow me everywhere I go. The worst being when I am on the freeway traveling at 65 MPH and an ant starts to walk across my face inside my helmet. That would make a good photograph.
#31 - June 23rd, 2007 at 02:15
OK this is weird. I read the question with interest because my son is bug expert and he gets them to sit still all the time. I read the responses to see if any one had suggested my son’s formula (10minutes in the freezer) for getting your bug to hold still without killing it, and someone named Josh had already made the suggestion.
I’m of the let it live school of thought. Kill a bug if you have to but not for the lame photo you will invariably file in the waste bin.
#32 - June 26th, 2007 at 05:30
[…] was an interesting post on photocritic.com a while back about the ethics of killing insects to take their pictures. The […]
#33 - June 27th, 2007 at 22:34
This technique works wonders with small children as well.
#34 - July 1st, 2007 at 18:17
I almost became interested in photography. However, if this forum is a typical cross section of the mindless dribble I would contend with in this hobby, I’ll stick to raising chickens. Oh, I don’t use a killing jar for them, I put their neck in a killing cone and slit their throats. Anyone want a picture?
#35 - July 17th, 2007 at 22:37
I have been trying to catch that perfact insect photo. To date I’ve not had much luck. I have thought about killing my prey in order to get the photograph I want. It has gone no further than a thought. I don’t think that it is my place to take a life that I did not put here in the first place. I have no way of replacing that life either. Few things that are worth getting are made easy. It’s called life. I hope that you blog readers will visit my sight and sign my guestbook so that I know you were there.
#36 - July 20th, 2007 at 10:14
Sounds like you’re making killing fields… not really. I think this is a great idea. Can’t wait to get my 100mm f/2.8 now…
Cheers!
#37 - July 27th, 2007 at 14:05
I just bought your book, I’ll be reading it by the time I’m done with the one I’m reading in present days
Regarding the insects, I’d never dare to kill any for the sake of photography!
I once burst into tears when I decided to freeze a butterfly. I just couldn’t tolerate the fact that I’m torturing this beautiful creature. At the end, I set her free :)
#38 - July 31st, 2007 at 12:58
I found putting them in a jar in the fridge or freezer for a few minutes slows them down significantly depending on big of a hurry you are in. It puts them in a dorment state without killing them.
#39 - July 31st, 2007 at 17:32
“If you make one of these jars correctly, you can kill insects quickly and painlessly.”
Only a moron would make a statement like this.
#40 - October 17th, 2007 at 13:10
I personally don’t think it comes down to size but more or less brains…larger animals tend to think more and have more personality then lets say an ant (that has no personality) who’s whole life comes down to following a trail to get to food (I know some ants do a little more then this but you get my point). and as for killing the insects painlessly they can’t feel pain, they can’t be sad and they can’t fear us like a dog, cat, or other animals you compared to killing insects, so is it okay to kill insects? Sure why not its not hurting any thing , literally insects don’t feel pain remember =P, so any ways my point killing a insect is different then killing lets say a frog not because of size (there are some insects bigger then some frogs) but because of brain power.
Now I’m not saying go out and kill all the insects Far from it I would say avoid killing them if you can, try the freezing thing see how you like it, but don’t feel sorry for all the bugs you killed its life you kill things every day weather you like it or not do we feel sorry for all the bacteria we kill when we wash are counter or eat some food that happens to have some on it? No we don’t its just some thing that happens and can’t be avoided.
Really though I don’t think I can change any ones minds about any thing people are still going to stick up for the poor insects and probably even get mad at me so it really just comes down to how you feel about it not what other people feel about it.
#41 - February 16th, 2008 at 21:08
I love photographing insects. It begin one day when I found a dead dragonfly on my patio. I however, have never killed an insect to photograph it. It doesn’t seem right. If you look long enough you will find a dead insect somewhere. I think it’s more exciting and a challange to try to photography them while they are alive. I did this with a giant wasp nest once.
I wanted to photograph them coming and going. I probably won’t do something so risky again but I was at a safe distance.
Of course I started to feel like someone on Wild Kingdom and really understood their derring. I would rather stay alive to shoot more photos, though. Orange flies, dead or alive—that’s a challenge.
#42 - May 6th, 2008 at 04:11
I love running into love bugs. It’s that season again in Florida. Also took an entymology class at U of F, and made a bug collection as part of the class. As insects are, as a group, the most populous on the planet, a few less won’t upset me, although I tried to stay away from the butterflies since in my opinion there’s no need to destroy beauty without good reason. But I’ll stomp a cockroach, and swat mosquitos, and eat steak, and catch fish, as often as I can…
#43 - June 15th, 2008 at 18:15
Everyone here might benefit from reading any of the following books:
Kill Jar: The Ethics of Insect Collecting by Lars Laramore
The Zen Master on Entomology: Dont Bug Me by Ling Ting Tong
I Married a Monster: The sadistic story of the man who froze bugs to take their portrait. by Barbara Dahl
Roach Stomper: The Awful Tale of A Mindless Serial Killer by I.M Raid
All are available through your local bookstores and online. Be sure to enter the Special Purchase Code: katydid.
Woody Pulps