Placing insects in the fridge...

[dragonblade71]

I guess the title of this thread may seem odd but the plan is to place some insects in the fridge to slow them down for photography. The question is - roughly how long should they be kept in the fridge? I wouldn't want to leave them in there too long in case harm comes to them. Some time back, I placed an arachnid in the fridge (a huntsman spider) for about a minute but that seemed to have no effect on it. It was very skittish and highly mobile when I photographed it.

 

[RTTB]

Seems like a risky practice.

 

[dragonblade71]

It's quite a common practise for photography. One of my subjects will be a large moth. If I don't slow that particular invert down for the photo session, there's a good chance that it will fly away.

 

[RTTB]

Makes sense then.

 

[Ratmosphere]

Since you placed a huntsman in there that long and it didn't have any profound effect, try a longer amount of time. Check on it every so often though! I put flies in the freezer for about 30-45 seconds to slow them down so I could feed them to my mantis. Any longer than this they freeze and die.