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I'm going to share my experiences conducting a mosquito trap experiment in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio. Throughout the summer, I will have 4 mosquito traps set up in my backyard, each baited with different substances, but otherwise identical. The goal of this controlled experiment is to see what type of bait is most successful at attracting adult female mosquitoes to lay their eggs.
Week 1 of Mosquito Trap Experiment (Week of June 21):
I set up my mosquito traps around June 13, but unfortunately I had some issues right off the bat. We had some windy days here in Cleveland, ...
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Curriculum:
STEM
GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
Investigation Areas:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
MOSQUITOES
Primary Audience:
STUDENTS
TEACHERS
Student Research Reports:
INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM REPORT
MISSION MOSQUITO REPORT
My mosquito trap experiment is testing the effects of different kinds of bait and locations on mosquitoes. I have set up three different traps in three different locations with three different kinds of bait.
Experiments and Hypotheses
Trap #1:
This trap is located in my backyard, which has an abundance of wasps. I know that wasps are not predators of mosquitoes, but I believe that the presence of the large wasps might disrupt the mosquitoes. The bait used in this trap was initially watermelon juice which was then switched out with sugar water. Both of these baits provide sugar, ...
Posted in:
Curriculum:
STEM
GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
Investigation Areas:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
MOSQUITOES
Primary Audience:
STUDENTS
TEACHERS
Student Research Reports:
INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM REPORT
MISSION MOSQUITO REPORT
Hypothesis: It is expected that most mosquito larvae will be present in alkaline water with the highest pH while the least mosquito larvae in the acidic water with low pH.
Setup: 5 identical buckets were placed in a shaded area in my backyard, several meters from each other. The independent variable in this case was the pH of the water as it varied from strongly acidic to strongly alkaline. The exact values of pH used were 1, 3, 7, 10 and 12. These were achieved by adding baking soda and lemon to 500ml of distilled water. The number of larvae were observed every 5 days after which ...
Posted in:
GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
Investigation Areas:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
MOSQUITOES
Primary Audience:
STUDENTS
TEACHERS
Student Research Reports:
INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM REPORT
MISSION MOSQUITO REPORT
Setup/Procedure
In this experiment, I used four traps with four different baits as such: Concentrated Processed Sugar (Gatorade), Less Concentrated Processed Sugar (Refined Sugar Dissolved in Water), Concentrated Less Processed Sugar (Honey Dissolved in Water), Less Concentrated and Less Processed Sugar (Coconut Water). This was of course was alongside the control trap, consisting solely of tap water. I placed all five traps in the same area - underneath a tree.
And thus, I hypothesized that the trap with the concentrated and less processed sugars would attract the most ...
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Curriculum:
STEM
GLOBE Science Topics:
GENERAL SCIENCE
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
Investigation Areas:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
MOSQUITOES
Primary Audience:
STUDENTS
TEACHERS
Student Research Reports:
INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM REPORT
MISSION MOSQUITO REPORT
In this experiment, I will be exploring how geoposition, type of bait, and container size influence female mosquitos’ choice of where to lay their eggs.
Experimental design
There will be a total of 5 traps. Three of the traps will be positioned at a location near my house. They will be separated by a reasonable distance in the same type of environment to minimize the experimental error caused by having multiple breeding habitats in close proximity. The other two traps will be positioned in various locations in my land cover area of interest. The exact locations will be ...
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GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
Investigation Areas:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
MOSQUITOES
Primary Audience:
STUDENTS
TEACHERS
Introduction/Theory
For my mosquito experiment, I am testing how different kinds of bait affect the number of oviposition in my trap. Different mosquito species are attracted to different habitats, natural or artificial, some of which have been changing due to climate change. Mosquitoes are the most dangerous animal in the world because of their disease transmitting abilities, so understanding their oviposition instincts could be crucial in order to prevent further spreading of dangerous diseases such as the dengue virus, malaria, or the zika virus.
Variables ...
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GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
Investigation Areas:
HYDROSPHERE
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
MOSQUITOES
Primary Audience:
STUDENTS
TEACHERS
Student Research Reports:
INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM REPORT
MISSION MOSQUITO REPORT
Research Questions: My experiment ran two adjacent triads of mosquito traps aimed to explore two questions: whether the local mosquito species in my area prefer to oviposit in containers with greater surface areas of water, and whether the same mosquitoes would prefer to oviposit in particular containers with varying types of water "bait".
Data: After 5 weeks of running this experiment, I failed to capture even a single mosquito larva. I'll go into further depth as to why this might've been later on in the "Conclusion" section. Both experiments suffered from a ...
Posted in:
Curriculum:
STEM
GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
Investigation Areas:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
MOSQUITOES
Primary Audience:
STUDENTS
TEACHERS
Student Research Reports:
INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM REPORT
MISSION MOSQUITO REPORT
During my field study, I observed that I found more mosquito larvae in dirty ditches under an open sky. Based on my observations, for my mosquito traps, the specific variables I chose to control were centered around the quality of water and trap wall materials. I made 3 traps: A deep ceramic pot with mud, water, sticks, and dead and live plants, a cut water bottle with clear water and black electrical tape wrapped around it, and a shallow, wide plastic dish filled with water and dead vegetation but relatively little other particulates.
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1. Pot trap with ...
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GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
Investigation Areas:
HYDROSPHERE
MOSQUITOES
Primary Audience:
STUDENTS
TEACHERS
Student Research Reports:
INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM REPORT
MISSION MOSQUITO REPORT
*Last Updated July 14, 2022
Purpose: For my experiment, I am testing what color container and type of water mosquitos are most attracted to.
Background research: During the weekly science session with Dr. Alison Parker, I learned more about mosquito habitats and where mosquitos breed. Mosquitos lay their eggs in/near water, and mosquitos in their early larvae and pupae stages live in water. This information guided me to choose my AOI coordinates in an area with standing water. The coordinates on the red line in the picture run along a ditch that leads into a ...
Posted in:
Curriculum:
STEM
GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
Investigation Areas:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
MOSQUITOES
Primary Audience:
STUDENTS
TEACHERS
I am currently testing the attractability of mosquitoes to black and white, with a control of transparent plastic. This could help us determine what clothes to dress in to avoid mosquito bites, and therefore the spread of disease, when going outside.
Materials:
Three 1 liter clear plastic containers
One 1 liter white plastic container
One 1 liter black plastic container
Five wooden sticks
Fish food
Hypothesis: Mosquitoes will hatch more larvae inside of a white conatiner than a Black container because the white stands out more in a natural environment.
I ...
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GLOBE Science Topics:
GLOBE PROTOCOLS
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
Investigation Areas:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
MOSQUITOES
Primary Audience:
STUDENTS
TEACHERS
Student Research Reports:
INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM REPORT
MISSION MOSQUITO REPORT
Initial Setup
I decided to test how sunlight and container size would effect mosquito oviposition both in terms of how many larvae and what type of larvae are found in each container.
Testing For Sunlight
I found two locations in the same neighborhood with very different levels of sunlight.
My first location is a sunny and open back yard (with my cat):
My second location is a shady backyard near a golf course:
Testing For Container Size
At both locations I placed a 5 gallon home depot bucket and half of a plastic water bottle to compare the ...
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Investigation Areas:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
MOSQUITOES
Primary Audience:
STUDENTS
TEACHERS
Student Research Reports:
INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM REPORT
MISSION MOSQUITO REPORT
As my trap experiment, I'm comparing location, trap contents, and trap container (mostly the container, hence the title).
I have 8 traps set up across 3 locations - 3 in one, 3 in another, and 2 in the last. Each location's traps all share an origin for the water they use and the bait they use, but each of the traps in a location uses a different type of container - either a dark blue bucket, white bucket, black bucket, or clear soda bottle. As a further variation, the soda bottle traps are much smaller that the bucket traps, giving another layer to the data.
The first set of traps ...
The last 4 weeks of field trips and mosquito mapping have made me curious about the effect of water quality on the habitation of mosquito larvae in water bodies. So far, I have gone to a canal, creeks, ponds, and backyards. All these places vary in their water quality and mosquito larvae content.
<--- The creek I visited had mostly clear water
<--- Canal with poor water quality and lots of algae
Looking beyond AOI for vector-borne disease data
While my field research is limited to the area of interest (AOI), I researched New Jersey vector-borne surveillance reports ...
After reading the article "Container Type Affects Mosquito Oviposition Choice," I was inspired to test how a container's surface area, an abiotic parameter, may affect female mosquito oviposition choice (Parker et al). At first, I was really curious about how the ratio of surface area to volume in a container affected oviposition choice. Thus, I began my experiment by finding containers with different surface areas but of similar volumes so I could control the volume of water in each container and more effectively isolate whether surface area affected oviposition choice. The first ...
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Investigation Areas:
HYDROSPHERE
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
MOSQUITOES
Primary Audience:
STUDENTS
TEACHERS
Student Research Reports:
INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM REPORT
MISSION MOSQUITO REPORT
Conclusion: Although no mosquitoes were found, this process has helped me understand the methodology of making an experiment and having to deal with hardships and setbacks. There were many potential sources of error both within the system of the experiment and with outside forces. Systematic errors could have stemmed from the trap design or location. The weather was a factor of random error. The weather varied across the duration of the experiment, sometimes drastically within a single week. The weather changes could have been counteracted with more frequent checking of the ...
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GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
Investigation Areas:
HYDROSPHERE
MOSQUITOES
Primary Audience:
STUDENTS
TEACHERS
Student Research Reports:
INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM REPORT
MISSION MOSQUITO REPORT
I decided to test the impacts of fertilizer on mosquito breeding habitats.
Background:
I live in the Tampa Bay Area in Florida, and a major issue facing our ecosystems is fertilizer entering our waterways from runoff after people fertilize their lawns before it rains. This can lead to major algae blooms, like red tide, which are harmful to the rest of our marine organisms. Just last year, there was a particularly dangerous bloom that led to a fish kill where our waterways were littered with millions of dead fish.
However, the Tampa Bay Area contains more than just marine ...
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Investigation Areas:
HYDROSPHERE
MOSQUITOES
Primary Audience:
STUDENTS
TEACHERS
Student Research Reports:
INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM REPORT
MISSION MOSQUITO REPORT
NYC is very hot and stuffy in the summer, but also has a lot of shade. A large part of this shade comes from large buildings, but most blocks have trees and there are some notable parks with a lot of tree cover as well. I get bitten all the time in the park when not in direct sunlight, but not so much when I'm downtown with the same level of shade.
I wondered if there was something to this natural shade (from trees) vs artificial shade (from buildings), or if the park in general was just more conducive to mosquito growth.
I also added cute little PLA 3D Printed frogs as ...
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Investigation Areas:
MOSQUITOES
Primary Audience:
STUDENTS
TEACHERS
Student Research Reports:
INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM REPORT
MISSION MOSQUITO REPORT
Background: I live in a suburban area around 30 miles south of San Francisco in the West Bay, near the wetlands/the bay. Our county regularly treats the wetland trails for mosquitoes, and they also do aerial treatment, especially in the spring when mosquitoes like to breed.
Many previous literature papers concluded that mosquitoes prefer to oviposit in slightly alkaline water; as such, I predicted that there would be a higher abundance of mosquito larvae in the alkaline water.
To make an alkaline solution, I added baking soda to water; to make an acidic solution, I added aspirin ...
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Student Research Reports:
INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM REPORT
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Selecting the right satellite images and products can be challenging! In this blog, I am sharing my learning and experience of working with satellite images for image classification and visualization.
The use of remote sensing satellite images to measure water qualities is a viable option to predict and control vector-borne diseases. Space agencies, such as NASA and ESA, provide open access to both acquired images and curated data/products for scientific research. Data is available both in the raw format as well as products (e.g. Top-of-Atmosphere (TOA) reflectance, ...
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STUDENTS
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Student Research Reports:
INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM REPORT
MISSION MOSQUITO REPORT
I currently have four traps in operational order. Two at one of my AOIs and two in backyard that were prototypes that I've left up because they seem to be performing admirably. I My traps have been up for about a week, the prototypes were deployed a day before the other two, and I haven't seen any mosquitos or mosquito larvae. I did take care to note that I used dog food in my trap, specifically the dry kibble variant instead of ones that come in chunks or are wet. I choose dog food over decomposed plant-based organic material because I noticed that the few times I've accidentally ...
Posted in:
GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
Investigation Areas:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
MOSQUITOES
Primary Audience:
STUDENTS
TEACHERS
Student Research Reports:
INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM REPORT
MISSION MOSQUITO REPORT
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