Investigating the Damage of Acyrthosiphon pisum on the Health of Fabaceae and Evaluating the Efficacy of Chrysoperla sp.

Overview

Aphids are small insects that negatively impact varieties of plants and cause complications to a plant’s health such as stunting plant growth and causing discoloration. Aphids carry and transmit harmful plant viruses which reduce crop yields, and have caused world-wide estimated production losses of 10%-15%, and estimated direct loss in pea plant production of 8%-16%. Aphid infestations can rapidly increase and cause serious problems, which requires farmers to rely on chemical pesticides that may harm people and the environment. There is limited research comparing natural predators and safer plant-based pesticides. My project seeks to investigate the most environmentally friendly way to control aphid infestations by comparing a plant-based pesticide, Neem Oil, and natural predators such as, Convergent Lady Beetles and Green Lacewing Larvae. I approached my project by cultivating my aphids and tracking overall plant health. After cultivation, I divided my aphids into 4 terrariums (37 aphids in each); three experimental groups (Neem Oil, Convergent Lady Beetles, and Green Lacewing Larvae) and one control terrarium with 37 aphids and no treatment. My independent variable was the type of treatment and my dependent variable was the aphids’ mortality rate. Each treatment reduced the aphid population by 86%-91.9%. The most effective treatment was Convergent Lady Beetles which killed an average of 7 pea aphids per day, while the least effective was Neem Oil. These findings show that natural predators can help local farmers and agricultural organizations while minimizing cost, reducing crop damage, and helping the environment.

Competition history

• CSEF 2026 Plant Biology (Junior Division) · Entry J-18-18

Related projects

Closest projects by meaning, across every fair and year in the corpus.

Browse more like this

• All Plant Sciences projects
• CSEF Plant Sciences projects
• Every CSEF 2026 project