ESA Malaise Program Team Leaders Alex and Isabel send greetings from ESA to all other participants and supporters of the program!
Archives mensuelles : septembre 2014
MDCSS Trap #SMTPselfie
Tuesday September 30th
Hey all you biologists out there! We are the Monsignor Doyle Mustangs in Cambridge, Ontario and our program has been going well! We have had wonderful weather (about 24 everyday and sunshine) and our catch volume has been good. We wish we had better plant diversity in our school yard, however that is out of our control.
Brantford Collegiate Institute #SMTPselfie
Brantford Collegiate Institute’s grade 9 science class’ #SMTPselfie! Great picture!
First Week of the Malaise Trap Program
We saw a wasp on Monday, September 22, when we first went there, but the bottle wasn’t in the Malaise Trap yet. Then, on Friday when we had the bottle on, we caught some insects like a wasp and lots of flies.
We love the program and this Malaise Trap Program is fun because we are learning about insects. Flying insects go in the trap then die. We caught lots of them last week and we might catch more insects this week.
Friday Report
We put our Malaise trap up on Monday, September 22. The insects will fly right up to the top of the trap and there is a hole at the top and the bottle is attached to the hole.
There is ethanol in this bottle so the insects get trapped in the bottle and die.
On Friday, September 26, we took it down to see how many insects we have caught.
The ethanol in the bottle, believe it or not, actually changed colours!!! It was sort of a brownish colour instead of being clear. Most of the bugs were dead at the bottom of the bottle along with some floating insects. The floating insects looked like they were swimming. I think it’s because they just got in the bottle over night so they are probably just making their way down.
Today, September 29, we went back to the location where we have set up the Malaise Trap. Because the cloud coverage was only about 3%, I thought we wouldn’t catch many bugs. Usually there are insects flying in my face every day. But today there were no insects in the air. That’s why I predicted we wouldn’t catch lots of insects today! We found 2 ladybugs around the tent though, so maybe we will catch some crawling critters, such as: ladybugs, spiders, or maybe even beetles. Because those bugs can crawl up the net right into the bottle, as they look for shelter when the weather is rainy.
Kicking Off the Program for Evergreen Elementary
On September 22 our grade five class took a five minute walk from Evergreen Elementary School to our science teacher’s yard to attach the ethanol to the trap.
The trap was bigger than I thought.
We use ethanol to preserve the insects. It is important how we handle it because ethanol is very dangerous, poisonous and flammable. If we didn’t use ethanol the insects would naturally dissolve or decompose, and the research biologists wouldn’t be able to take a good enough tissue sample.
We were the first class to attach it. Because of that there were no insects. Yet there was one that had found it’s way into the top bottle.
I think it is a very clever program. I find it very intriguing and interesting, especially because the DNA barcodes can be used to prevent fish fraud!
About the Trap
The trap has two shades – black and white. In the middle there is a net to keep insects from flying through the middle and getting away. The roof goes up in one spot and there is a hole that is bright like the sun so they fly for it and fall into a tube filled with ethanol. The ethanol is used to preserve the insects.
bugs@ Jackchambers
On Friday last week, we went out to take down our Malaise trap bottle. We saw A LOT of insects in the jar. There were flying and non-flying insects. We even saw a grasshopper! Today, we put on the week 2 bottle and we are now ready for week 2 of catching bugs! We expect beautiful weather in London all week and hope that helps our bug count. -Matthew
St. Ignatius – #SMTPselfie!
Hello everyone!
St. Ignatius has sent us their #SMTPselfie! Great pictures guys!
Insects and Weather
On September 22 we went to Miss Manacom’s back yard to see our Malaise Trap. We recorded the daily high temperature, cloud cover and catch volume.
These records are important because then it will give us better understandings of how the weather affects the insects. For example: if it was snowing then not many bugs would be out. In that case, if it is super sunny it will be good bug catching weather.
There are two bottles of ethanol; the first one is for week one and the second one is for week two so we can see if there is a difference of the bugs.