
Natural Insecticides and Cricket Survival
Medium
Which plant-based insecticide works best against crickets? Synthetic pesticides raise safety concerns. Three natural options might offer a safer way to control pests.
You place 15 crickets in each of 12 containers. Three containers get pyrethrum. Three get wormwood and three get rosemary. The last three serve as a control with no treatment. You check every two hours for 20 hours and count survivors.
One of the three natural treatments proves far more effective than the others.
Hypothesis
The hypothesis is that Wormwood will be most effective against the crickets.
Method & Materials
You will measure out different amounts of Pyrethrum, Wormwood, and Rosemary and put them in containers with crickets. Then you will observe the results over time to see which one works best.
You will need one 1oz Pyrethrum, one 1oz Wormwood Powder, one 1oz Rosemary, 12 Containers for containing the crickets, and 1 Week for mail orders to arrive.
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See what’s includedResults
The results indicated that the hypothesis should be rejected because the pyrethrum was far more effective than the Wormwood. This experiment showed that Pyrethrum could be used to more effectively control crickets.
Why do this project?
This science project is interesting because it explores the possibility of using natural insecticides instead of synthetic ones, which can be harmful to the environment.
Also Consider
Experiment variations to consider include testing different amounts of each insecticide, testing different types of insecticides, and testing different types of crickets.
Full project details
Additional information and source material for this project are available below.Related video
These videos explain the science behind this project and demonstrate key concepts used in the experiment.
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