Cleaning wire for insemination tips

01 · WHAT IT IS FOR

Cleaning and, above all, checking

Its obvious job is to drag out the traces of semen or fluid left inside the tip which, once dry, put it out of service. The gauge is calculated to travel narrow capillaries without damaging them, with just enough stiffness to reach awkward spots.

And it has a second use worth as much as the first: it works as a gauge. If the wire goes to the bottom and comes out, the tip is clear — and that is checked before the session starts, not halfway through it.

02 · WHEN TO PASS IT

Between uses, and dry

Pass it as you finish each tip, while the residue has not yet dried: at that moment it comes out with no resistance. Once dry, the residue grips the glass and costs three times the effort.

Afterwards the tip is stored dry. Moisture held in a capillary is the origin of most of the blockages that turn up in the next session.

03 · WHERE IT FITS

Insemination instruments

It is an accessory of the instrumental insemination kit, where everything is played out in tenths of a millimetre and a blockage ruins the handling of a queen who is already anaesthetised.

It is sold singly, so it is worth having more than one: it is the piece in the whole set that bends or goes missing most easily.

04 · BEFORE YOU BUY

It is a single piece of the instrument set: