A NEW BRUSHING NET FOR BRUSHING OF SILKWORM LOOSE EGGS

The newly evolved Bivoltine hybrids are available in the form of loose eggs which ¡s having several advantages over the sheet eggs. The loose eggs are packed in small boxes. In sh boxes all the eggs are not exposed properly to the required temperature humidity and light unlike sheet eggs. Therefore, to facilitate the optimum climate conditions the eggs should be transferred to the loose egg plastic incubation frame. Brushing of loose eggs with two nylon mosquito net is to avoid the mixing of un hatched eggs with the rearing bed. The body of newly hatched larvae covered with hairy bristle like structure which do not allow the larvae to crawl freely by crossing two layers of nets and it leads to missing larval percentage, which was as high as 17%. Due to the reuse of the net the size of the net shrinks and looses its shape and elasticity. To overcome these problems the use of an alternate and improved brushing net was recommended This method requires only one HDPE Poly fabric (30% shade net) preferably white ¡n colour to use for brushing of newly hatched larvae. No sticking of egg shells wàs noticed. Re use of shade net don’t alter the shape, size as there is no shrinkage, compared to control of using two mosquito nets for brushing. The economics cocoon yield by reducing the missing larvae is 5.3 kg per lOO dfls. The minimum larval percentage was reduced from 12% to 5.25% by use of new brushing net. There ¡s a gain of 5.3 kg by cocoon weight / IOU dfls (50.000 larvae). The use of new brushing net (30% shade net) saves labour, cost on net, reduces missing larval percentage and improves cocoon yield.