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Zoology Science Fair Project

Ladybug Survival and Insecticide Type

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Ladybug Survival and Insecticide Type | Science Fair Projects | STEM Projects
What happens to helpful ladybugs when farm insecticide lands on them by accident? Ladybugs eat crop pests, so farmers need them alive. This project tests whether one insecticide type is safer than another. You divide about 100 ladybugs into groups of five. One set is sprayed with Sevin, a chemical insecticide. Another set gets an organic insecticide. A third set receives only distilled water as a control. You count how many survive in each group. The results show a clear difference between the two products. One kills nearly every ladybug, while the other leaves most alive.

Hypothesis

The hypothesis is that the organic insecticide will kill the ladybugs faster than Sevin.

Method & Materials

You will divide each shoebox into 3 different compartments, spray the ladybugs with insecticide, and observe the ladybugs to see how many die.
You will need ladybugs, a sprayer, marking pens, plastic sheets, a pencil, shoeboxes, yellow kitchen gloves, a gallon container of distilled water, and two types of insecticide.

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Results

The results showed that Sevin killed nearly all of the ladybugs, while the Organic destroyed only about 3. This means that Sevin worked much faster than the Organic.

Why do this project?

This science project is interesting because it can help farmers to be extra-careful when using insecticide, so that they don't accidentally kill the ladybugs that help keep down pest population.

Also Consider

Variations to consider: testing different types of insecticides, or testing different types of ladybugs.

Full project details

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

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