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At different stages of the cycle of providing the agricultural producers with plant protection means, the producers and consumers of beneficial insects and ticks face a number of problems. In particular, during the production and application of the predatory ticks in certain periods a problem exists of inconsistency of the rate of delivery of the finished products to the needs of the end consumer. The impact of storage under conditions of lowered temperature (from 0 °C to +15 °C) upon the biological parameters of the predatory tick Amblyseius swirskii: survival, fertility and migration activity was studied. Based on the statistical processing of the results of laboratory research on the PC, it was found that minimisation of the predator losses can be achieved at a storage temperature of +6 °C. In addition, to ensure the corresponding values of biological indicators, the storage period should not exceed 8 days. The obtained results allow the development of a new storage method for Amblyseius swirskii in order to solve the problem of the mismatch in the rate of supply of predatory ticks to the needs of the end user. The storage of the ticks at low temperatures for a period of more than 8 days during mass dilution for application on the plants is not justified. By introducing the storage of Amblyseus Svirsky at low temperatures, the proposed approach allows significant solution of the problem of uncoordinated rate of delivery of the finished products to the non-rhythmic demands of the final consumer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Entomocultures is a perspective trend, and they find increasing application in the modern agricultural production. The growing and mass production technologies of entomocultures involve the use of technologies and a complex of equipment adapted to certain natural and climatic conditions providing increased efficiency of the technological processes for the production of entomological products. The technical requirements for the production lines of specific means of biological protection are characterised by significant variability, which determines the purposefulness of the designed approach in order to create technological lines for growing entomocultures. In order to assess the technology, as a whole, a generalised criterion was used, which characterises the minimum energy consumption or a maximum profit. To analyse the entire technology, taking into account several criteria, the indicators of each operation are summarised and presented both in physical terms and by its cost. The research showed that the entomocultures, grown using adaptive technologies that ensure the implementation of external climatic parameters of the environment used by the insects (temperature, humidity, lighting, the air flow) in the entomological laboratories for their production, are characterised by the quality indicators 1.2-1.3 times more in comparison with the entomocultures, obtained by other methods. The insects no longer need a period of adaptation to the climatic conditions in the places of their use. The maximum approximation of the characteristics of the cultivated insects according to the proposed technologies to the indicators of natural populations has been experimentally confirmed -- the deviation is not more than 10 %. The energy efficiency indicators are increasing by 18-20 %, and the environmental safety indicators by 15 %. At the same time, the operating costs are reduced not less than by 27-30 %. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existing practice of creating the equipment for industrial production of entomophages is usually based on the development of the working design documentation for already tested mock-ups and experimental samples of the laboratory equipment obtained as a result of the research work on introduction of insects into culture and their breeding. However, such an approach is rather expensive. This study is aimed at a methodological provision of the stage of the engineering design of technological complexes for industrial production of entomophages, the main characteristics of which are determined by the design of the cages for insects. The proposed scientifically based scaling methodology substantiates a possibility and conditions to ensure pre-set values of the abiotic and the biotic factors of the cage models when their areas are changed. Criteria are justified for a complex assessment of various technical solutions by way of minimising the relative technological prime cost of manufacturing the cages and boxes in which they are implemented. Analytical dependences were obtained and investigated of the technological cost of a set of cages and boxes for the cultivation of lacewings on their areas. It has been established that increasing the area of the cage for lacewings from 0.0625 to 0.125 m² reduces its cost from 1.43 to 1.06 UAH⋅ (insect)-1, and increasing the area of the box for cages from 0.3 to 0.6 m² reduces its cost from 0.55 to 0.04 UAH⋅ (insect)-1. In order to minimise the prime cost, it is necessary to increase the horizontal cross-sectional areas of cages and boxes to values limited by the ease of use or the structural strength. The developed methodologies were tested during the design of a technological complex for the production of the gold-eye entomophagy, including the prototype cages. In comparison with the existing equipment, a 50-60 % improvement in the economic indicators has been achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The production of microbiological preparations for agricultural needs is often implemented on the basis of small and medium-tonnage regional production facilities. The most common technology used at such enterprises is submerged cultivation of microorganisms using the fermentation apparatus. The use of a nonstandard fermenter necessitated the creation of additional equipment and the development of a non-standard technology for preparation and sterilization of nutrient media - an automated technological line for the production of biological products - a fermentation complex of the modular type KFM-420. Analysis of the technological process shows that mixing the components and obtaining the finished products actually occurs inside the fermenter. A comparison of the efficiency of the standard scheme for mixing the components with jet mixing based on the experimental results, shows that the use of the jet mixer can reduce the mixing time more than by half. This led to proportional power consumption decrease from 60 Wh for standard technique of nutrient components supplying to the fermenter and further mixture homogenizing by agitator to 25 Wh for jet mixing of the components. There is substantiated the expediency of using jet mixing of components as the most energy-efficient technology for the preparation of nutrient media from liquid components that have undergone separate sterilisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]