Heliothis eggs and static electricity???

[Chuck Vaughn]

Dick,

Static electricity is caused by rubbing non-conductive materials together.
Once charged there's no easy way to get it discharged. The real solution
to your problem is to use conductive petri dishes....if such things are
made. Conductive plastic petri dishes could easily be discharged to ground.
Such strategies are used extensively in the electronic industry to prevent
ESD problems with sensitive equipment.

Chuck <aa6g at aa6g.org>

----------------------------
 
> Our rearing department produces many thousands of Heliothis zea eggs
> daily.  I need to use mine as single eggs in the field, but often find that
> they 
> are clumped into groups of 2 to 5 and are difficult to separate.  We run
> them thru a strainer and discard the clumped eggs.  However, now I find
> that the eggs cling to the top of the plastic petri dish that I use to take
> them to the field and generally jump around around a lot, depending on
> where my hand is placed on the dish, from static electricity. I lose a lot of
> eggs this way. Does anyone have a suggestion on how to prevent the eggs
> from clumping (which probably is not due to static electricity) and jumping
> (which probably is due to static electricity)?
> 
> Cheers,
> Dick Marti
> 
> Orville G. Marti, Jr., Microbiologist
> USDA, ARS, IBPMRL
> PO Box 748
> Tifton, GA.  31793
> 
> omarti at tifton.cpes.peachnet.edu
> Phone: 912-387-2328  (office)
> Phone: 912-387-2350  (lab)
> FAX  : 912-387-2321
> WEB: http://sacs.cpes.peachnet.edu/ibpmrl
> 
> 
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