Photo by V. Miller
April 25, 2007
Catching Mosquitoes
To Kill a Mosquito
Jason Lloyd, 14, Bonaire, Ga.
Finalist, Discovery Channel Young Scientist Challenge, 2006
Project background: While visiting his brother, an entomologist who specializes in mosquitoes, Jason saw some mosquito traps. His brother challenged him to improve the existing traps or design a better one. Since mosquitoes are attracted to motion, Jason hypothesized that a mobile trap would catch more mosquitoes than the existing traps, which were stationary.
Tactics and results: To build his mobile trap, Jason attached a standard mosquito trap to a toy train. He set the train in motion and allowed it to catch mosquitoes for 2 hours at dusk. He then compared the number of mosquitoes in the mobile trap with the number of mosquitoes caught in that same time period by a nearby stationary trap.
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| Photo by V. Miller |
Jason found that his mobile trap caught significantly more mosquitoes than the stationary one did.
To get science project ideas and expert advice from Science Buddies, go to www.sciencebuddies.org/mentoring/areas_of_science.shmtl.
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