The final count for St. Ignatius of Loyola for Week 2 reached about 40 insects (Level 1). Although our trap was taken down on Monday, we still have a few exciting reports: 1) a large dragonfly was the newest addition to our collection; 2) rabbit droppings were sighted beside the trap; 3) a black-and-orange caterpillar was seen on the trap; and 4) some white mushrooms are growing beside the trap… take a look!
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.
We have been participating in the School Malaise Trap Program.
On Monday, September 22, we put the ethanol on the trap. (Don’t play with ethanol. It is very poisonous and flammable). We use ethanol because it preserves the bugs after they die in it. They die in the ethanol because it is poison. Again, ethanol is very poisonous.
The trap worked very well and we caught hundreds of tiny little insects. In our second week, we hope to catch more insects than before.
We decided to set up the trap at our teacher’s house so that it would not be disturbed. If it was disturbed, the specimens might fall out, the ethanol would spill, and some kids would get very sick from the ethanol on the ground, maybe even the fumes of ethanol could make them sick.
On September 22, we went to see our Malaise trap.The Malaise trap was smaller than I thought. When we went there, there were no insects in it.