Ant+Baiting+Lab+-Thorpe+Yunik+Sayers

Ant Baiting Lab: Members: Rachel Bowden, Emily Sawyer, Megan Thorpe, Ary Yunik, Rebecca Sayers, Alex Osborne, Shyanne Keller, Laken Enssle

Bait: Honey, Tuna Fish, Karo Syrup Location: Woods~just off the trail, on the right trail, edge of woods and trail!

Procedure: 1. Place a small amount of bait in each lid or weigh boat. 2. Place the weigh boat on the sticky papers. 3. Place the trap in the desired locations. 4. Wait for the ants to arrive. 5. Observe the numbers of ants at each station by photographing and recording data in the data table. 6. Compare the number of ants at each location. 7. Draw inferences and conclusions from the data. Materials: 1. 3 Weigh boats 2. Honey 3. Tuna fish 4. Karo Syrup 5. Sticky paper 6. Camera 7. Notebook and pen

Just a question: Are we testing the location or the baits? Thanks! We are testing the bait, but have to test in different places in the woods so that it is a representative of the whole woods, in case we choose a spot that doesn't have ants then the data would be off!

Question: Which type of bait, honey, tuna, or karo syrup, do the ants prefer?

Hypothesis: If we test three different baits, honey, karo syrup, and tuna, then there will be more ants on the sticky pad with the honey on it because honey smells sweeter and the ants will be more attracted to the honey.

Constant: amount of bait, location, and sticky pad

Independent Variables: Location **(I don't believe that this is a dependent variable that should be included in the question that we are testing, thoughts???)** **I think that we should first find an area with a confirmed colony of ants, then place all 3 samples in that area to ensure that they are choosing their favorite bait, not just the one closest to their colony. If an ant found one bait appetizing, it would not continue on to find it's favorite.** Bait

Dependent Variable: Ants

Control: Water


 * || Honey-Site A || Tuna-Site A || Karo Syrup-Site A || Honey-Site B || Tuna-Site B || Karo Syrup-Site B || Honey-Site C || Tuna-Site C || Karo Syrup-C ||
 * Ants-Period 1 ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Ants-Period 5 ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Ants-Period 6 ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Ants-Total ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||

Notes 9/19 Period one placed the sample in the forest with our flag. We saw no ants by the end of the period.

9/19 Rachel Bowden and Emily Sawyer observed that there were no ants in the sample. We watched it for awhile and none seemed to come or go. There were no other insects in the sample and the sample was still there, it did not blow away. That is all we observed.

9/19/11 Megan Thorpe, Rebecca Sayers, and Ary Yunik also observed that there were no ants in the sample. We had the same observations as Rachel and Emily. We then collected the flag and the sample and brought them inside.

19/26/11 Period 1 placed two samples of tuna, one at the edge of trail and one on the trail. We saw no ants by the end of the period.

Period 5 checked the samples and in the one closer to the school there was one ant, and in the one in the woods there were 5 ants in it and several ants around it.

Period 6: At the water based site, there were no ants in or around the sample At the oil based site, there were at least 15 very small black ants surrounding the tuna. They were about 1mm long. Also there was 1 ant in the tuna and 2 ants that were deceased, assumed by drowning, in the oil.