Animal husbandry – Entomological culture device – Egg treatment – production – or storage
Reexamination Certificate
2000-01-24
2001-06-12
Price, Thomas (Department: 3643)
Animal husbandry
Entomological culture device
Egg treatment, production, or storage
Reexamination Certificate
active
06244213
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The practice of using insects (e.g., lacewings) in reducing the use of chemical insecticides in agriculture, especially on edible vegetation, has gained in popularity. Presently, the high cost of insects such as adult lacewings has been prohibitive for commercial growers since large quantities are needed for practical use. Up until now, packaging lacewing eggs has proved to be tedious and labor intensive. Currently, commercial rearers of lacewings have been manually loading lacewing eggs into rearing units. The rearing units are made up of individual cells, with each unit having 500 cells. This method of manually loading includes first placing a weighed quantity of eggs (which are small particulate-like matter the size of salt grains) in a common salt shaker and shaking the eggs into the unit so that at least one egg enters a cell. Food is placed into the cells by a similar method. Generally two or three eggs enter a cell to ensure that at least one viable lacewing egg is present in each cell of the rearing unit. Once the eggs are placed within the cells, the rearing unit is closed by gluing a sheet of polyester fabric over the top. Each cell in the unit will then produce only one lacewing adult since the larvae are cannibalistic. Placing the eggs requires approximately 60 seconds per rearing unit. This method is very labor intensive, which is one of the major problems with commercial lacewing production.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention removes the need of manual placement of insect eggs into the rearing units. The invention is a device which rapidly loads and distributes insect (e.g., lacewing) eggs and their food supply into vertical rearing units. The device automatically dispenses a measured quantity of eggs and food into each of the cells with speed and accuracy. In the present invention the loading process fills the rearing containers at a rate of 5 sec for every 500 cells.
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Blythe John L.
Tedders Walker L.
Fado John D.
Price Thomas
Silverstein M. Howard
Stover G. Byron
The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of
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