VSI IR-502 - Oviposition Brushing Machine

Brushing machine to remove eggs from oviposition paper
Brushing machine to remove eggs from oviposition paper

VSI IR-502 oviposition brushing machine. In insect rearing facilities, e.g. laboratories dealing with mosquitos, females are often allowed to oviposit (i.e. deposit eggs) on moist (sterilized) paper strips such as paper towels, seed germination paper or crepe paper. Commonly, the eggs are collected after paper drying by laboratory personnel - using fine brushes to manually brush the eggs from the "egg papers" into containers for maturation. However, this is process is laborious and thus not suitable for high-throughput mass rearing facilities and research institutions. Together with entomologists working in mass rearing facilities, Vienna Scientific developed and refined the VSI R-502 brushing machine to automatically remove adhering eggs from paper strips. 

VSI IR-502 Oviposition Brushing Machine - Specifications

For oviposition harvest, paper strips are gradually entered between two counter rotating barrels equipped with brushes. The brushing speed can be adjusted stepless. Oviposition is collected from an extractable storage compartment at the bottom. The user-friendly IR-502 machine significantly reduces the time for insect egg collection in insect research and mass rearing settings. The design allows for easy cleaning of all parts after removing the cover. 

VSI IR-502 Brushing machine - Details

Images for illustration purposes only, design subject to change without notice

SELECTED READINGS ON Insect egg collection

  • Clemons A., Mori A., Haugen M., Severson D. & Duman-Scheel M. 2010. Aedes aegypti culturing and egg collection. Cold Spring Harbor Protocols 2010, pdb.prot5507-pdb.prot5507.
  • Ponnusamy L., Böröczky K., Wesson D.M., Schal C. & Apperson C.S. 2011. Bacteria stimulate hatching of Yellow Fever mosquito eggs. PLoS ONE 6, e24409.
  • Zheng, M.-L., D.-J. Zhang, D. D. Damiens, H. Yamada, and J. R. Gilles. 2015. Standard operating procedures for standardized mass rearing of the dengue and chikungunya vectors Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus (Diptera: Culicidae) - I - egg quantification. Parasites & Vectors 8:42