Insect Rearing & Colony Cages for Research and Production. Together with partners an advanced, space-efficient mass production cage (MPC) for mosquito colonies has been developed. It is able to successfully rear (hundred) thousands of Aedes aegypti and Anopheles arabiensis adult mosquitoes in a mass production set-up. The cage has been developed and designed to minimise handling and the opening of the insect cages during operations such as blood feeding and ovideposit collection. The mosquito cage includes (i) an port for an external blood feeding system (from top), (ii) a self-levelling/refilling, removeble sugar feeding system (50 µm mesh size), and (iii) an water sprayer and oviposition paper system located at the bottom of the cage. Males and females pupae can be added to the bottom of the insect cages and emerging adults have constant access to sugar solution or blood. Similar Anopheles colony cages were e.g. tested for functionality by Balestrino et al. (2014) and Maima et al. (2017). Insect cages for other insect species and purposes (research, ex situ conservation etc.) can be realized.
Mosquito Mass Rearing Cages (MRC) are custom made. Three standard mosquito rearing cages are available immediately:
i) large MRC cage (assembled) are 200 cm x 100 cm x 20 cm (l x h x w).
ii) Standard medium MRC Type 1 "IAEA" (100 cm x 100 cm x 10 cm; FAO/IAEA, 2020), and
iii) extended medium MRC Type 2 (100 cm x 100 cm x 20 cm; l x h x w). Mosquito / Insect cages of any other dimension (see e.g. an example for a "desktop" cage below) or including other features can be manufactured upon request (please get in contact).
We are happy to customize the insect rearing / colony cage design to meet your specific (research) needs, e.g. for plant-insect interaction studies we can replace the top (blood ports) with highly translucent polycarbonate panels - allowing for plant illumination. Please contact us if you would like specific information about the mosquito cage or if you are looking for custom insect rearing mesh cages to suit your specific facility or research program.
Custom-made Cages for Insect Research. Various sizes and configurations of insect cages are available to fit your climate chambers / current lab setup, rigid or collapsible, with collection or supply trays, different net colors/screen sizes, etc. "All net" versions or partially with acrylic side panels. Insect cages can hold bottom panels for "sunken" potting holes (with drainage system) and transparent top panels for insect cages with plants - allowing for illumination. Access doors, entry holes for cables, fans, feeders, etc. can be fitted / designed as required by researchers. Contact us to discuss your custom insect cage design, steps to prototyping and production, and pricing. Consider the small insect release cages for insect transport solutions, alliquots.
Insect rearing cages, also known as insect colony cages or oviposition cages, are typically used in research facilities to house and study flying insects in a controlled environment. They are specifically designed to provide a safe, secure and standardized habitat for insect colonies while allowing researchers to observe and manipulate the insects as needed and/or harvest egg deposits. As a result, many specific insect cage designs have been developed and used for different species. Here we describe some common uses for insect rearing cages beyond the mosquito mass rearing tasks described above:
Overall, insect rearing cages are an essential tool for entomologists and ecologists studying intra- and interpecific insect-insect, and insect-plant interactions, allowing researchers to create controlled environments in which to study and manipulate insect behavior and physiology. Consider our insect aspirator for controlled collection/transfer of flying insects between rearing cages.