Dr. S. Mohan

TNAU insect removal bin can remove insect automatically. The structure has 4 major parts namely outer container, inner perforated container, collection vessel and the lid. The model exploits wandering behaviour of stored product insects as well as the movement of these insects towards well aerated regions. The grains are held in the specially designed inner perforated container. The space between inner and outer container provides good aeration for the insects. Insects, while wandering, enter the perforation to reach the aerated part and while doing so, get slipped off and fall into the collection vessel through a pitfall mechanism provided in the collection vessel. In order to quickly collect the insects, as and when they emerge from grains, perforated (2 mm) rods are fixed in the inner container.

 

The container will be useful for storing rice, wheat, broken pulses, coriander etc. The insects such as rice weevil, lesser grain borer, red flour beetle, saw toothed beetle, which are commonly found attacking stored grains can be removed automatically by storing grains in this container. Within a very short period of 10 days a majority of the insects (more than 90 per cent) can be removed from the grains. The containers are available in 2 kg, 5 kg, 25 kg, 100 kg and 500 kg capacities.

 

Efficiency : Grains (paddy and sorghum) stored in Automatic insect removal bin (100 kg and 500 kg) recorded only 1 - 4% damage by insects compared to 33 to 65% damage in ordinary bin after 10 months of storage. The population of insects (R. dominica, S. oryzae) ranged from 0 - 2 / kg in grain stored in 100 kg Automatic insect removal bin compared to 5 - 191 / kg in ordinary bin after 10 months of storage.