Tag Archives: insects

Insects for Us

The Malaise trap program is fun because we can catch insects and they are an amazing species. On Friday Sept. 26 we took down the bottle for the week and we put up a brand new one. Ethanol is a poisonous liquid – really dangerous – don’t want to be around that stuff.

We all really want to catch a brand new insect!! I hope we get more insects than the first time.

What We Caught

On September 22nd Evergreen Elementary grade 5 started a Malaise Trap in our teacher’s backyard. The Malaise Trap hasn’t gotten very many bugs in there because we had a huge rain/thunder storm on Thursday, September 25th.

When we were at our Malaise we saw a wasp and hoped it would go in our Malaise Trap, but sadly it didn’t.  We got lots of other types of bugs, but not as much as we hoped. I thought it was pretty good for our first week.

When our teacher looked inside the bottle we actually caught 2 wasps, 1 lady bug, and a lot of mini bugs and some other bugs too! I think Malaise Trap is really interesting.

Sept 26 week 1 results (2)

St. Paul Malaise Trap

Hey  it is Sophie and Daniella! We’re on week 2 of our Malaise Trap project. It’s a good start (we’ve caught 8 bugs in one hour!). The weather has been good which is why we have “so many” insects. We hope that by the end of week 2, our catch volume will be greater than week 1.

Blog you later!!!

Week 1's bottle
Week 1’s bottle

Forest Ave. Considers Location

Our bottle has filled up quite a bit since yesterday.  It’s now up to the first mark!  Most other schools have a more buggy area.  Our school is close to Lake Ontario.  Maybe our school will have different results than Erin Mills (also in Mississauga). What do you think?  Maybe tomorrow will be very buggy.  It might even raise another line!  – M. (gr4)

Oops…the boys forgot to attach their pictures to the previous post…

Having fun while checking the traps, the boys wanted a picture included in their post, but forgot to do so.  Sooo…I am putting it here.

In terms of the trap, it is a nice day outside and the boys assure me that we have quite a few insects in the trap.  Level wise, we are still around 1.  I removed the Week 1 collection bottle and had a look inside.  In terms of interesting specimens, could see some caddis flies, at least one syrphid fly, and a few solitary wasps.

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Forest Avenue Considers the Differences in All of Our Habitats!

It was really exciting when I first heard all about the Malaise trap.  I could not wait to set it up!  I thought we would get lots of bugs because there are bugs flying all around our school.  I don’t think that there will be lots of different bugs because it looks like we have the same bug.  But I still think there may be around 7-9 different types of bugs.  I think we will collect about 250 bugs in all.  I also think that the Northwest Territories will not get lots of bugs like the provinces because it is warmer down here than up there.  I think that the temperature will make a big difference.  We are lucky to be able to do bug research. – O.