If you don’t want to use a hydration chamber, you can order meal prep containers - ($20 for a pack of 50 from Amazon or look on Temu - a quick search showed 50 for $12).

You can also save and resuse a to-go container with a base and sealed lid! (Olive Graden).

I supply these in the kits, though I personally prefer this type of foam with the gridlines. These come in different sizes and complexities. You can also use a piece of styrofoam and cut out a slit in the middle.

For pinning around specimens, any sewing pins will do. I recently bought these for my own pinning.

For pinning through specimens (you’ll need these to pin through butterflies and moths), purchase insect pins - size 2 will work for most of your pinning needs.

For most of my pinning needs, I use curved ESD-15 tweezers, though it’s helpful to also have ESD-10. Here is a cheap 6-pack of various tweezers (the ones I personally use).

This is maybe the one thing you don’t absolutely need. I use a paintbrush to pick up broken antennae. Find the cheapest paintbrush you can - the flatter and smaller the better, but seriously, any one will do.

I bake a lot, so I just have parchment paper that I cut up and use. You can buy any type of parchment paper and cut it into different-sized strips. I cut them anywhere from 1in to 2in squares or sometimes 1×2in rectangles.

Any kind of paper towels will do! You need two pieces to lay flat and fold in your hydration chamber (at least). Sometimes, we run out (and my husband forgets to tell me). When this happens, I use toilet paper or paper napkins. They don’t work as well, but they do the job!

You can add a drop of rubbing alcohol (one drop, seriously!) to the edge of your paper towel, not directly on or below a specimen to help with smell and to prevent the growth of mold during the hydration process. If you are hydrating for only a few days, you don’t need to do this, and I do not. I use my husband’s stuff for his 3D printed minis (100 proof, I believe), but you can use whatever.

You can use any shadow box to display your butterflies and moths. Just make sure it’s large and deep enough. These 5×5and8×8 work for almost all of my display needs.

I mount the butterflies using a dab of E6000 glue. You can get it most places ($8 on Amazon is STEEP!) I get mine from Hobby Lobby - I know, I know - when I go for other craft supplies. It’s like $3 for a bug tube of it.

For fixing broken antennae, I use any super glue. I dip the end of a sewing pin and do a very small dab on the end of the broken spot, not the antennae, but the spot on the body of the bug where the antennae broke off.

I frame all of my specimens (at least the ones in the shadow boxes) with high-quality, acid-free cardstock paper. You can use any scrapbook paper from your favorite craft store.