Ludhiana based Central Institute of Post Harvest Engineering and Technology ( CIPHET) under Indian Council of Agricultural Research has developed a mechanical device for detection of insects in stored grains. The device is capable of instant detection, and a fair quantification, of insect infestation in stored food grains. The device facilitate the detection of the presence or absence of live or dead insects in stored grain and it also allows to visualize the egg infestation in the grain sample; that further provide a fair quantification of insect infestation level.

The device has been patented by CIPHET recently and is ready for commercial manufacture through licensing. It is even more useful as sampling device in detecting storage pest at regular interval for Central Ware Housing Corporation, Food Corporation of India and other private grain storage; research institutions involves in scientific storage of food grains like State Agricultural Universities, Agricultural Department of the State Governments, etc.

Newly developed mechanical device is simple in design and fabrication, portable and in-expensive that provides a unique movement to the grain sample. As a result of the unique movement of clock-wise and anticlock-wise, the hiding insects frightened, scared, wander and then screened out from the grain sample.

The device can be suitably used to detect variety of different insects such as: grain borer, rice weevil, red flour beetle, rusty grain beetle, and saw-tooth grain beetle in different types of cereals, pulses and oilseeds and similar commodity that become infested during storage. This device is also capable to detect the carry over infestation from the field harvest.

The mechanical device consists of two separate units: a set of insect detecting boxes and another is a mechanical system to provide the desirable motion to the set of insect detecting boxes. The insect detecting boxes has four major parts; upper container for grain samples, magnifying glass at the top lid, circular sieves of different sizes and insect collecting chamber at the bottom. The desirable motion provided by mechanical unit is the clockwise and anticlockwise semi-circular motion to the detecting boxes. The peculiar and eccentric motion facilitates to agitate the grain samples. This particular motion and churning/agitating of grains samples create frightening experience to the hidden insects that are further trapped in insect collecting box. If there is any dead insect present in the sample, this will also sieve-out and collected in the insect collecting box.

The enclosed insect collecting box does not allow the insects to even fly out. Since the grain sample box & insect collecting box both are made of transparent material; one can easily see from outside the type and number of insects in order to further make an assessment of the infestation level. The device is tested for the stored chickpea grains and detected adults of Callosobruchus sp. However, immature and internal feeder could not be detected. Further it was tested for green gram, black gram, rice and wheat to detect insect pest like Sitophilis oryae , Rhizopertha dominica and Tribolium castaneun. The device is also suitably detects insects in flours by changing the size of the disk sieve.

(PR Unit /April/2008)