Ants Be Gone!

Overview

Objectives/Goals The purpose of this experiment was to test everyday household items to see which was the most effective to use as an organic ant repellant. If a good organic repellant can be found, people will not have to use harmful chemeicals that may also harm themselves to keep ants away. Methods/Materials My experiment consisted of four experimental design groups and a control. The control was two teaspoons of honey on an upside down bowl. The reason for the bowl was to ensure that the repellant would not soak into the ground . Ants are extremely attracted to honey, so more ants would come to the experimental design groups and I would have a better chance of recording accurate information. Each day I would set up the five experimental design groups, and would count how many ants came through the ring of repellant that I set around the honey. This number I would then compare to the number of ants that went to the control group and the number of ants that went through the ring of repellant in the experimental design groups. The experimental design group with the least amount of ants was the best to use as an ant repellant. Results After completing my experiment, I concluded that cinnamon was the most effective repellant. This was because of the same reason in my hypothesis - the strong smell, and because the cinnamon stuck to their feet. Many people think that cinnamon may attract ants rather than repel them. When an ant smells something sweet it will be attracted to it. Therefore, when I put out the experimental design group with the cinnamon, ants were not as attracted to it because it didn't smell sweet to them. I also concluded that even though the cinnamon repels ants, it attracts slugs; the reason why, I am not sure of. Conclusions/Discussion Even though cinnamon was the best, it did not completely prevent ants from reaching the honey. There were still a couple of ants at the cinnamon experimental design groups, but it had the least compared to the others and the control. I think that chemical products overall are the best ant killers because they do not contain anything at all that ants would be attracted to. In the future, organic repellants will probably be produced that are safer and more effective. My experiment will never be totally complete as there will always be some questions remaining having to do with other possible materials as effective organic repellants.

Competition history

• CSEF 2005 Pharmacology/ Toxicology · Entry J1404

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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