Which Natural Insecticide Kills the Fewest Lady Beetles?
Researched by Justine G. 2001-02	PURPOSE  HYPOTHESIS  EXPERIMENT DESIGN  MATERIALS  PROCEDURES  RESULTS  CONCLUSION  RESEARCH REPORT  BIBLIOGRAPHY  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The purpose of this experiment was to determine which natural insecticide was least harmful to lady beetles.

I became interested in this idea when I discovered that some beetles cause serious damage to agricultural crops, leading to great money loss. 

The information gained from this experiment will help farmers to decide which natural insecticide to use on their crops to kill crop infesting insects without harming beneficial insects as well.

HYPOTHESIS

My hypothesis was that "Tobacco Dust" would kill the most lady beetles.

I base my hypothesis on the "Tobacco Dust" label, which states that "Tobacco Dust" is toxic to fish and wildlife, may kill birds feeding on treated area, and is harmful to humans if swallowed, inhaled, of absorbed through skin.

Top of page

EXPERIMENT DESIGN

The constants in this study were:

• The type of beetle used in the experiment.
• The temperature at which the beetles were housed.
• The container in which the beetles were housed.
• The amount of light the beetles were exposed to.
• The type and amount of food the beetles were given.
• The amount water the beetles were given.
• The environmental surrounding of the beetles.
• The amount of insecticides put onto the beetles 
• How the insecticides were put onto the beetles.
• How the insecticides were measured before put onto the beetles.

The responding variable was the amount of lady beetles that survived the insecticide.

To measure the responding variable I counted the amount of living lady beetles and recorded the data. 

Top of page

Top of page

PROCEDURES

1. Obtain all materials.
2. Gather the five containers
3. Label the containers "Tobacco Dust", "Rose RX", "Hot Pepper Wax", "Water", and "Control Group".
4. Separate 500 of the beetles into five groups of 100 beetles each.
5. Place each group of beetles in a separate container.
6. Count how many sprays it takes to get 15ml using water, a spray bottle and a graduated cylinder.
7. Spray 15ml (20 sprays) of "Hot pepper wax" insecticide onto "Hot Pepper Wax" group.
8. Spray 15ml (20 sprays) of "Rose RX" insecticide onto "Rose RX" group. 
9. Spray 15mL (20 sprays) of water onto "Water" group.
10.  Spread 1 gram of "Tobacco Dust" onto "Tobacco Dust" group.
11. Record how many lady beetles have survived in each group after 12, 24, 36, and 42 hours.

Top of page

RESULTS

The original purpose of this experiment was to determine which natural insecticide was least harmful to lady beetles.

The results of the experiment were that "Rose RX" was most effective, followed by "Hot Pepper Wax", and then "Tobacco Dust".  Hardly any of the lady beetles died in the control group and the group treated with water.

See data and graphs

CONCLUSION

My hypothesis was that "Tobacco Dust" would kill the most of lady beetles.

The results indicate that this hypothesis should be rejected because "Tobacco Dust" was least effective.  "Rose RX" killed the most lady beetles. 

Because of the results of this experiment, I wonder if the results would be different if I used smaller amounts of insecticides.

If I were to conduct this project again I would do more trials and use a few more different kinds of insecticides. I would also use more lady beetles and do more trials.

Top of page
 

Research Report     Introduction Agricultural crops play an essential roll in the survival of humans and other animals.  Many of these agricultural crops are being destroyed due to infestation of insects, among them being beetles and aphids.  About five and a half billion dollars in damage to crops occurs each year in the United States.  Many farmers and crop growers use insecticides to kill infesting insects.  This may appear to be the best solution, but there are many risks and dangers in using most types of pesticides. Organic Insecticides Insecticides are substances that are applied to insects or their dwellings to kill or repel them.  They are used mostly on plants to keep infesting and annoying bugs away.  There are many different types of insecticides.  The most widely used are organic insecticides.  They are probably the safest types of insecticides because they are made from plants instead of chemicals, which can be harmful.  There are three main types of organic insecticides.  They are chlorinated hydrocarbons, organic phosphates, and carbonates. Organic Farming Organic farmers rely mostly on pesticides and fertilizers produced from plants, minerals, and animal wastes.  They use methods such as using one organism to get rid of another, which helps control pests. When pesticides made from harmful chemicals began to pollute and cause diseases, many farmers switched to organic pesticides.  Sales of organic foods have increased from one billion dollars in 1990 to more than six billion dollars in 1999.  Only 0.2 percent of all of the farmland in America is farmed using organic methods.  In Australia, about eleven percent of the land is farmed using organic methods. Synthetic Pesticides Synthetic pesticides are chemically processed insecticides that may contain petroleum, natural gas, ammonia, and other raw materials.  Synthetic pesticide ingredients can be highly toxic and long lasting.  They cause diseases, pollute the water, poison food, and kill beneficial insects such as the lady beetle, the praying mantis, or the lacewing fly.  These beneficial  insects eat aphids, mites, and other soft-bodied insects.  Many synthetic pesticides have been banned from use without a license, and some have been banned from the market completely.   One method farmers use to spray synthetic pesticides in large quantities is called crop dusting.  Crop dusting is when farmers fly over their crops in special airplanes.  Insecticides are then sprayed out of the back of the plane and onto the crops.  Farmers should be extremely cautious when applying synthetic pesticides to their crops, or other plants.  Insect Pests  Insects can be real pests to humans.  They invade homes, cause diseases, and infest many plants that farmers and gardeners grow.  Insects heavily damage farmers’ crops.  Beetles are some of the worst and most damaging insects to crops throughout the United States. Beetles  Beetles, like all insects, have six legs and three body segments; the head, the abdomen, and the thorax.  The abdomen is connected to the head, and the thorax is connected to the abdomen.  Beetles belong to the order Coleoptera. They range from less than one millimeter to about six and a fourth inches in length.  There are over 350,000 species of beetles known to man, which is over one fourth of all known animal species.  They can live almost anywhere on earth except for the oceans and extremely cold areas like Antarctica.  Not all beetles can fly, but many of them do.  These beetles have soft wings, which are tucked in under a hard pair of wings called elyrta when not used.  The elyrta protect the delicate wings from being damaged, but are not used in flight.  Beetles that cannot fly rely on walking for transportation.  Beetles can be extremely harmful to agricultural crops.  Some of the most damaging beetles are called weevils. Weevils  Weevils are the largest category of beetles, containing about 30,000 species altogether.  Weevils are the most damaging of all beetles to agricultural crops.  The most commonly known weevil is called the cotton boll weevil, or the boll weevil.  It was given its name because it infests cotton bolls, ruining farmers’ cotton.  Weevils lay their eggs in the seed of a plant.  When the eggs become larvae, they feed from the plant in which they were laid, which destroys it. Lady Beetles  Not all beetles are pests.  One beetle, called the lady beetle, is quite beneficial when it comes to plants.  Lady beetles, commonly called Asian beetles, are small, oval shaped beetles whose diet consists mainly of aphids. Aphids are tiny green bugs that infest plants.  Lady beetles eat about 40-50 aphids in one day.  They are usually red with black spots, but can also be orange or black.  When a lady beetle is knocked onto its back, it will open its wings and use them to flip back into the proper position.  Many farmers and gardeners purchase beetles in large quantities and release them onto their plants.  The lady beetles then eat infesting insects from the plants.  Though lady beetles are very beneficial, they can also be pests as well, not because they harm plants, just because they are somewhat annoying. Summary  Insecticide pollution is a very serious and expanding problem.  People need to be very careful when choosing insecticides to use on their plants and be sure the chemicals in them don’t poison themselves and their children.  Insects are a very serious problem as well.  They can cause diseases such as malaria, and invade homes, sometimes forcing people to move out.  There needs to be a safe balance between insect control and avoiding toxic chemicals. Top of page

BIBLIOGRAPHY "Beetle".  Encarta Encyclopedia Deluxe. 2001 Colbe, Harold D. "Insecticide." The World Book Encyclopedia. 1999. Hetzel, Glenn. "Safe Use of Pesticides in Agriculture." 11/14/01 http://www.ajkids.com/kids finalanswer.asp?  Huddlestun, Ellis W. "Weevil". The World Book Encyclopedia. 1999. Hynes, Erin. "Organic Farming". Encarta Deluxe. 2001 "Lady Beetle." 12/6/01 http://doyourownpesticidecontrol.com/lady_bugs Linker, H. Michael. "Pest Control." The World Book Encyclopedia. 1999. Linker, H. Michael. "Pesticide and Pest Control." The World Book Encyclopedia.  1998. Dabach, P., Rosen, D. "Pesticides and Pest Control".  Academic American Encyclopedia.  1998. Shetlar, David J. "Beetle." The World Book Encyclopedia. 1999.

Menu of 2001-2002 Science Projects

Back to the Selah Homepage