Daily Temperature
Cloud Coverage 
Catch volume(How many bugs were caught)
Notes ( Trap disturbances)
We had a slight break in our bug activity , but we are slowly getting back on track.
We thank you for the extra week to collect more data, and we have been getting much more bugs now that it’s getting warmer outside and the rain is gone. So this is the recent status of our bug collecting bottle.
We were quite excited that we were actually able to collect seven insects in our trap even though the daily temperatures have been around 7 degrees all week! The forecast for next week has temperatures in the teens! Here’s hoping we collect lots!
I’m going to be completely honest here, this project makes me uncomfortable. I have never really liked bugs. They are a nuisance to me. They get in the way and invade every aspect of your life. They ruin picnics, get in your food and buzz around your head. I don’t remember a time when I looked at a bug and was like ‘Wow, look at that beautiful creature crawling along the sidewalk.’ But don’t get me wrong, bugs are very important. (Not that I care to admit it). They are part of a bigger picture, one that we don’t think about. They are food for other species like birds and bats. So this Malaise Trap project shows that a variety of bugs are important to keep our current ecosystem stable and afloat. It shows that even though we can’t see them all the time that there are many species around us. Now I still don’t like going and looking at the Malaise Trap but I do realize how important this project is to study ecosystems.
– Blaire
Week 1 bottle (after week 2)
During the second week with the Malaise trap, the weather has been quite nice and our bug catches have been decent. Our group enjoys this new learning experience and has been having fun participating in this wonderful experiment! We have now caught over 100 bugs!
So far, we have trapped about 40 bugs, but they are pretty small. The weather has been cold, windy and rainy, so our bug catch is down. We are hoping for more bugs and better weather. Finding a new species around here would be awesome!
Today in Eastern Ontario, Iona Academy students participated in the Virtual Bio bus tour! We are pretty pump up about finding all the cool bugs that were described in the webinar.
Here is a view from our pond behind the school yard. Can you see our trap?
Today, as we were approaching the trap, we saw a little bird (chickadee) inside the trap. We we approached, it took off to fly, but kept hitting the net trying to escape! How cute that was:-) Too bad we never had our photographer near by!
On the other hand, we saw we caught more diversed bugs such as a bumble bee, spiders, lady bugs and others we did not know the name. Again more flies ( I guess it is because we are close by a dairy farm).
Weather was 15 degrees and partially cloudy. Very little wind!
Can you find a lady bug?
Well, isn’t this a surprise! This photo was taken Monday morning. The snow covered our set up, but we were quick to the fix.
As you can see, here in Nova Scotia we aren’t having much luck – the poor weather we’ve been having has prevented us from catching many bugs. Thankfully we’re allowed to keep our tent for an extra week (yay!) so lets hope the weather starts to spring up!
First snow, now rain! Tuesday had light flurries in the morning and rain in the afternoon here in Guysborough. This made for a sad and cold biology class. This is a picture of one of our classmates trying to keep dry.
Brrr… It’s cold! Here is some of the class battling the weather, on the hunt for some interesting bugs!
Tuesday: we caught a GIANT fly
Wednesday: we caught a SPIDER!
We are glad we get another week to collect because we haven’t had a day free of wind yet! We’ve had gusts around 30 km every day, with one day up to 55km! Our collection level is still around 1 (if the floating bugs are included).
Before we went down to the pond, we stopped to see our Malaise trap. Our Malaise trap is set up in Milo’s backyard. We have caught some bugs, including a bumble bee.
Even though it snowed on the weekend, all the snow had melted. It was sunny and warm when we went there on Monday.
When we went to the pond, we saw leeches and dock spiders. I found some garbage and put it in our bag because then it won’t harm birds and other animals. We also saw beetles.
