Preserving a jumping spider comes down to three main methods: storing it in alcohol for a natural-looking wet specimen, embedding it in clear resin for a permanent display piece, or dry-mounting it in a pinned position. Each approach has trade-offs in difficulty, appearance, and longevity, and the right choice depends on whether you want a scientific reference specimen or a keepsake you can display on a shelf.
Humane Euthanasia Before Preservation
If your jumping spider is still alive and you need to euthanize it before preservation, cooling followed by freezing is the most accessible method at home. Place the spider in a small container inside your refrigerator (around 5°C or 40°F) for roughly 60 minutes. The cold gradually slows brain activity and induces a torpor-like state. After the spider has fully cooled, transfer the container to a household freezer for at least 30 minutes. Pre-cooling matters because placing a room-temperature animal directly into freezing conditions can cause ice crystal formation that damages tissue and may cause distress. The two-stage approach allows the spider to lose consciousness gradually before freezing.
If your spider has already died naturally, skip this step and move directly to whichever preservation method you prefer. Just act quickly: soft-bodied arthropods like jumping spiders begin to deteriorate within hours at room temperature.
Wet Preservation in Alcohol
Storing a jumping spider in ethanol is the standard method used in museum and research collections worldwide. It keeps the specimen intact, preserves internal anatomy, and maintains a three-dimensional shape that dry specimens often lose.
The traditional concentration for morphological preservation is 70% ethanol. At this strength, the alcohol fixes tissue without making the spider excessively brittle, and colors hold up reasonably well in the short to medium term. If you also care about preserving the spider’s DNA (useful for identification or future genetic work), 95% ethanol or higher is the better choice. The trade-off is real, though: higher alcohol concentrations pull more water from tissue, which can make delicate structures like leg joints and fine hairs more fragile over time. For a pet jumping spider you simply want to keep as a memento, 70% to 80% ethanol strikes the best balance between appearance and longevity.
Use a small glass vial with a tight-sealing cap. Plastic containers can degrade or allow alcohol to evaporate over months. Place the spider in the vial, then fill it completely with ethanol so there’s minimal air space above the liquid. Check the level every few months and top off as needed, since even well-sealed vials lose alcohol slowly to evaporation.
Preventing Abdomen Collapse
Jumping spiders have soft, balloon-like abdomens that can shrivel or collapse in pure alcohol as water is drawn out of the tissue. Adding a small amount of glycerin to the ethanol helps counteract this. The glycerin keeps tissue slightly flexible and plump, and it provides a safety net: if the alcohol ever evaporates accidentally, the glycerin coating prevents the specimen from drying into a shrunken husk before you can add fresh fluid. A ratio of roughly 5% to 10% glycerin mixed into your 70% ethanol works well. Simply measure out your alcohol, add a small splash of glycerin, stir gently, and pour it over the specimen.
Labeling Your Specimen
Any label you place inside an alcohol-filled vial needs ink that won’t dissolve. Standard ballpoint pen, Sharpie, and most printer inks will blur or vanish within weeks when submerged in ethanol. Paint markers with alcohol-resistant pigment-based ink are the go-to solution. The edding 750 paint marker is a widely recommended option in lab settings because its opaque, waterproof ink resists most solvents including ethanol and isopropyl alcohol. Write your label on a small slip of acid-free paper or card stock, let the ink dry completely, and drop it into the vial alongside the specimen. Include the date, species (if known), and collection location.
Resin Embedding for Display
Embedding a jumping spider in clear epoxy or polyester resin creates a solid, glass-like block that you can handle, display on a desk, or even turn into jewelry. The result is permanent and requires no ongoing maintenance, which makes resin an appealing option for keepsakes.
Start by making sure the spider is completely dry. A specimen that still holds moisture will create cloudy patches or bubbles inside the cured resin. If your spider was stored in alcohol, remove it and let it air-dry for 24 to 48 hours. You can speed this up by placing it in a small container with dry rice or silica gel packets.
Work in a well-ventilated area and wear a respirator or at minimum a dust mask rated for organic vapors. Resin fumes are irritating and potentially harmful in enclosed spaces. Mix your resin according to the manufacturer’s instructions (ratios vary by brand), then pour a thin base layer into your silicone mold. Let this layer partially set for about 20 to 30 minutes until it becomes tacky but not fully hard. This gives the spider a platform to rest on rather than sinking or floating.
Place the spider upside down on the tacky layer. This sounds counterintuitive, but once you demold the finished block, you’ll flip it over and the spider will appear right-side up when viewed from the top. Gently press the legs into a natural pose. Then pour the remaining resin slowly to fill the mold, aiming the stream against the mold wall rather than directly onto the specimen to minimize turbulence and bubbles.
Air bubbles are the biggest challenge, especially around the spider’s dense body hairs, which trap tiny pockets of air. A few strategies help. Warming the mixed resin slightly (by placing the cup in warm water for a minute) thins it and lets bubbles rise more easily. Using a toothpick to nudge visible bubbles away from the specimen works for larger ones. A pressure pot, if you have access to one, is the most reliable solution: curing resin under 40 to 60 PSI compresses bubbles so small they become invisible. Let the resin cure fully according to the product’s directions, typically 24 to 72 hours, before demolding.
Dry Mounting and Pinning
Dry preservation is common for larger spiders but trickier with jumping spiders because of their small size and soft abdomens. The main risk is that the abdomen collapses into a wrinkled raisin as it dries, and the vibrant colors many jumping spiders are known for will fade significantly without special treatment.
If you still want to go this route, pin the spider through the right side of its cephalothorax (the hard front section) using a size 0 or 00 insect pin. Position the legs while the specimen is still pliable. If the spider has already dried and the legs are locked in an awkward position, you can rehydrate it in a relaxing chamber: line a sealed plastic container with paper towels soaked in a 50/50 mix of rubbing alcohol and water, place the spider on a small dish inside (not touching the wet towels directly), and seal the container. Check daily. Within one to three days, the joints will soften enough to repose the legs. Don’t leave it longer than necessary, because mold can develop on the specimen.
Once posed and dried, store pinned specimens in a sealed display case or shadow box with a tight-fitting lid to keep out dermestid beetles and dust. A small piece of mothball or a pest strip inside the case deters insects that would otherwise eat your specimen over time.
Which Method Preserves Color Best
Jumping spiders are famously colorful, and preserving that color is often the whole point. Unfortunately, no method keeps colors perfectly. Alcohol preservation tends to fade pigment-based colors (reds, oranges, yellows) over months to years, though structural colors (the iridescent greens and blues produced by microscopic scales) hold up better because they depend on physical structure rather than chemistry. Resin does a slightly better job at locking in the spider’s appearance at the moment of embedding, since the specimen is sealed away from oxygen and light. Dry specimens lose the most color overall, as pigments oxidize in open air.
Storing alcohol specimens in a dark location slows color loss noticeably. For resin pieces, keeping them out of direct sunlight prevents the resin itself from yellowing over time, which would obscure the spider’s natural coloring. Some hobbyists photograph their spider in detail before preservation as a permanent color reference.