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General Environmental Science Science Fair Project

Natural vs. Chemical Pesticides

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Natural vs. Chemical Pesticides | Science Fair Projects | STEM Projects
Can homemade plant sprays protect as well as a store-bought pesticide? You make sprays from chili pepper and onion by soaking them in hot water. You also mix neem oil with warm water. You spray four identical plants with one solution each. A fifth plant stays unsprayed as the control. Over two weeks you check every three days for leaf damage. You rate each plant from one to ten and compare the results.

Hypothesis

The hypothesis is that biopesticides will not protect plants as well as chemical pesticides.

Method & Materials

You will prepare three natural pesticides - chili pepper, neem, and onion - and a chemical pesticide. You will then spray the plants with the different pesticides and observe them for two weeks.
You will need five small mature potted plants of the same type, one chili pepper, two tablespoons of organic neem oil, one large onion, one bottle of chemical pesticide, three spray bottles, rubber gloves, four bowls, boiling water, liquid soap, a coffee filter, a funnel, a permanent marker, and plastic wrap.

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Results

After two weeks of observation, the results showed that the chemical pesticide was the most effective at protecting the plants from pests. The chili pepper spray was the second most effective, followed by the neem and onion sprays.

Why do this project?

This science project is interesting because it compares the effectiveness of natural and chemical pesticides, which is an important topic in the agricultural industry.

Also Consider

Variations of this experiment could include testing different types of natural pesticides, such as garlic or cinnamon, or testing different types of chemical pesticides.

Full project details

Additional information and source material for this project are available below.

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