How Does Cigarette Smoke Affect Crickets?

Overview

Objectives/Goals My objective is to determine if different amounts of nicotine in cigarettes have an effect on crickets' chirping. I believe the cigarettes with the greatest amount of nicotine will cause the greatest increase in chirping because nicotine is a stimulant. Methods/Materials I prepared four containers holding one female and four male crickets in each container. Each group of crickets was exposed to unfiltered, filtered, or ultralight cigarette smoke (using a milk jug smoke machine) for one minute. A control group was not exposed to smoke. Cricket chirps were recorded for one minute before and after exposure to smoke. Four tests were conducted on consecutive days. Results Crickets exposed to the most nicotine (unfiltered cigarette smoke) increased their chirping the most (by 64% on average), while crickets exposed to less nicotine (filtered cigarettes) increased chirping by 45% on average. Crickets exposed to the least amount of nicotine (ultralight cigarettes) increased 28% on average, while the control crickets did not change their chirping amount. Conclusions/Discussion My conclusion is that the more nicotine contained in a cigarette, the greater the affect on crickets' chirping because nicotine stimulates the crickets.

Competition history

• CSEF 2005 Pharmacology/ Toxicology · Entry J1429

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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