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Back at BIO, School Malaise Trap Program

Announcing the Spring 2015 #SMTPselfie Winners!

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LifeScannerWe are pleased to announce the winners of our #SMTPselfie contest! Thank you to all who entered, we had some great pictures this program! The winners for the #SMTPselfie contest will receive a Life Scanner Kit  which will essentially allow them to DNA barcode 4 organisms of their choice and find out what species they are! Currently these kits are being offered for free + shipping online at the above mentioned link, so be sure to sign your class up for one!

 

And without further ado…the winners of the #SMTPselfie contest are:

 

1) M.C. Knoll Elementary School

 

2) John Polanyi Collegiate Institute

 

3) Iona Academy

 

4) Chedabucto Education Centre/ Guysborough Academy

 

5) École Précieux-Sang
#SMTPselfie

 

Congratulations to the winners, and a big thank you to all who participated! The Life Scanner Kits have been mailed and are on their way to you!

Currently, most of your specimens have been processed by the lab and have been uploaded to our online barcode reference library (BOLD). To learn more about the lab processes, please visit the following link: http://malaiseprogram.ca/how-it-works/in-the-lab/

 

We look forward to sharing the School Malaise Trap Program results with you soon!

 

Sincerely,
The School Malaise Trap Program Team
Back at BIO

Pictures from Mayaguez, Puerto Rico!

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Hello School Malaise Trap Program participants!

We thought you may be interested in seeing a few pictures of one of the Malaise traps participating in BIO’s Global Malaise Trap Program. The following pictures are of a Malaise trap deployed in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico.

This trap was deployed around the same time that you were collecting in your schoolyards. If you look closely, you can certainly see that the samples collected in this trap are very different from the ones collected in your traps.

29_April_May_6_2015_Malaise_Mayaguez_PR_1 29_April_May_6_2015_Malaise_Mayaguez_PR_2PRMT

Back at BIO, School Malaise Trap Program, Spring 2015

Your Samples are Arriving!

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Hello School Malaise Trap Program Participants!

We are happy to say that we have received almost all of your Malaise trap samples for the Spring 2015 program! The rest of the samples are on their way, and we can’t wait to see what you have all collected.

Once your samples arrive at BIO, they go straight to our Collections unit, where they will be sorted by insect Order. As you can see from the pictures below, this can be quite a long and meticulous process.

20150513_133243 20150513_133232 SM

Back at BIO, Spring 2015

Week 2: Virtual Tours & Insect Trapping Methods!

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Hello All,

This week, BIO has been hosting live virtual tours of our BIObus (our field research vehicle). During these tours students have been learning about different insect trapping methods, insect orders, and have had the chance to interact with our expert!

Can you name the insect trapping methods pictured below?

Trapping Methods

BIO has also been collecting specimens this week. Check out our week 2 bottle below!

MT BIO

Happy Collecting!

 

School Malaise Trap Program, Spring 2015

Attn. Teachers! Trapping will be extended by one week (till May 8th)!

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Dear Teachers,

Based on the collection reports, weather data/feedback that we have received from you over the past few days, the School Malaise Trap Program Team has decided to extend trapping by one week. This means that trapping will now officially conclude by noon, Friday, May 8th. With this extension comes greater pressure on BIO to process your specimens before the end of the school year so that you may receive your results. We will do our very best, however will require your utmost cooperation on the shipping front. As you will only be trapping till noon on Friday, May 8th, we will require you to package your trap up and arrange for a FedEx pickup that day. Your package must be sent out during the afternoon of Friday, May 8th! As some participants are in quite rural locations, you will need to drop off your package for shipment at the same location which you picked it up. Once again, package send-out must take place on Friday, May 8th. Further shipping instructions will be forwarded to you shortly.
Since most of you have collected very little over week one, we will be using the week 1 bottle to trap during the second week. Come Monday morning (April 27th), please reattach the week 1 bottle to the Malaise trap and remove it at the end of the day Friday, May 1st. Monday morning, May 4th, please attach the week 2 bottle and remove it by noon on Friday, May 8th in order to ship your package back to BIO in a timely manner.
Some of you have experienced some ethanol spillage from your week one bottle. As long as the ethanol is around the “2” level, you should be able to proceed with trapping. If your ethanol is lower than the “2” level, please bring it up to that level by pouring some ethanol from your week 2 bottle into the week 1 bottle.
Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns regarding trapping extension.
Furthermore, keep up the great blogging and twitter work. We are hoping that next week will bring warmer weather for all and we would like to hear how this affects collecting.
I look forward to hearing your classroom’s thoughts about trap extension. Please keep us updated!
– School Malaise Trap Program Team
Spring 2015

Monday, April 20th is the first day of trap deployment!

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Reminder:

Monday, April 20th, is the first day of trap deployment. Please secure the week 1 bottle on the trap at the beginning of the day.  On Friday, April 24th, please remove the week 1 bottle at the end of the day and store it in a secure, cool and dark location. The Malaise trap will remain set-up over the weekend (April 25th & 26th), with no bottle attached. On the morning of Monday, April 27th, please secure the week 2 bottle to the trap. At the end of the day, Friday, May 1st, please remove the week 2 bottle and repackage the Malaise trap and samples in the original shipping container. Come Monday, May 4th, packages are to be shipped via FedEx back to BIO. Further shipping instructions to follow.

Back at BIO, Spring 2015

BIO Has Set Up Their Malaise Trap!

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Hello All,

We’ve had some lovely weather here in Guelph, ON over the past week and we thought that this would be a good time to set up our Malaise trap  here at BIO which we use for spring/summer/fall educational programming!

Malaise Trap at BIO (April, 2015)
Malaise Trap at BIO (April, 2015)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can already see that the attached ethanol bottle (see the dark and cloudy areas) has collected a few insects (mostly flies).

However, there are more than just flies out there! Over the weekend, one of our E&O team members spotted a Leaf-footed bug on her balcony.

Leaf-footed bug (Family Coreidae)
Leaf-footed bug (Family Coreidae)

Reminder: Trap deployment is Monday, April 20th. Now would be a great time to finalize the location of your Malaise Trap. You may also wish to set up your Malaise trap on Friday, April 17th so that come Monday morning, all you will have to do is screw in the week 1 ethanol bottle and make trap observations.

We look forward to seeing what you collect!