Our first week started out with a weekend with two days of snow and a down pouring of hail, frost on the ground and a low of -2. Our trap needed a few repairs but we continued with the project. Our aim was to hope the cold weather did not kill all our insects. We made a goal of 1…………. glad to say we got 8 mosquitoes and a small spider. YEAH. Students look forward to our daily checks!
Today, as a group, we went out to the trap to see how many insects had been caught and we checked for any disturbances. We think 120 insects will be caught in the first week. Compared to Monday when we set up the trap, we found that in between Monday and Thursday 50-100 insects have been caught. We think that weather affects the number of specimens caught because in hotter weather conditions, we believe that insects will be drawn to the shade where it is cooler. Under the tree, there is the trap which will catch the insects.
-Tatenda, Logan and Klara
Looks like it might rain today, it is very overcast and a little chilly. Inside the trap, there are lots of bugs. The trap does not have any disturbances. I think today will be good because the bugs will be looking for a shelter and go to the trap and get caught.
-Josh and Fred
Today is extremely hot!!! We think this will affect the outcome of our experiment in that less insects will be coming outside today. We also noticed that there are lots of flying ants in our trap…we wonder why? Other than that, the trap is unharmed.
– Olivia, Hannah and Jordan
As we observed the trap, we noticed that there were bugs in the net, but there weren’t many in the bottle. There were a lot more smaller bugs than bigger bugs.
– Justin, Crystal and Dory
Up and running here at Highlands School in Edmonton. Had to make some tough choices about where to put the trap … ended up deciding it stood its best chance at staying undisturbed in our vegetable garden area. Hopefully we don’t capture all our pollinating insects.
We are so surprised how few bugs we have caught so far! We predict that by the end of this week, the bugs won’t even reach halfway to the “1” on the scale. It was great to see the tent looking undisturbed and sturdy and we hope this keeps up for the rest of the project. Our group also noticed a number of bugs flying near the top of the tent, but not going into the bottle. We hope the number of bugs we catch starts to rapidly increase soon!
-Aaron, Elisa, Renee
Wow, there are so many bugs! It is so cool how our Malaise trap can gather the bugs in such a scientific way. While we were observing the Malaise trap, we had the opportunity to observe a bug get trapped in the net and fly up to the container. We are ecstatic with how well the trap is working. We already have a catch volume of 0.25. We can’t wait to see what we will trap next!
-Ashlyn, Sarah, Nic
When we went out to check the Malaise trap this afternoon, we discovered that the back part of the trap had caved in. It was a disappointment because there were few bugs in the ethanol bottle. We managed to fix the back part of the trap and hopefully in the days to come there will be more bugs caught.
-Simon, Justin and Jordan
After careful consideration, the grade 9 science classes have chosen to set up the Malaise Trap along Tiffany Creek. The tall trees and high vegetation provide security and hopefully, a lot of insects. We are so excited to start collecting on Monday!
