The rational of my project is to keep ants (Monomorium minimum) or also called little black ants, outside of our homes, and to not tempt them to come back in. The physical structure of an ant’s body and the lipid layer covering their exoskeleton makes ants a poor site for bacterial collection. Also, an ant’s saliva is made of antimicrobial agents that help sterilize the ant’s body. (Wicken, D, (April 20, 2006) Even though ants are one of the most sterile species in the world, psychologically ants cause an over whelming feeling when they are in your home. Also, it is always annoying to find ants in your food or all over your counter. Like most ants, Monomorium minimums have a sting but it only hurts small insects like aphids, there main food source. (Adams E., Traniello J. [1981-01]). If the …show more content…
pioneer ant, the ant which searches for food, never finds any food worth getting, then the pioneer ants will never release pheromone trails. The rest of the ants will never follow. (Alfred M. Bruckstein (1993-03) Monomorium minimum feast on sugary liquid called honeydew, made by aphids. They also eat dead insects, spiders, and your trash. Inside homes, they will eat any sweet and oily droppings they can find. (Ninety-Nine Gnats, Nits, and Nibblers, Berenbaum M., Sherrod J.) Instead of calling pest companies, could just simply putting away certain types of food solve the whole problem? Trying to kill them all will never work because each colony has multiple queens and more than 2000 workers which aids the colonies to grow rapidly. Monomorium minimum live all over the United States and in some parts across the world. (http://www.schoolofants.org/species/99) Finding which baits will attract Monomorium minimums the best, then putting those types of foods away should keep them out of your house. You could also poison their favorite baits and when the worker ants take it back to their colonies they will all die. Hypothesis: If you put out ½ teaspoon of sugar, cheerios, potato chip, strawberries, salt, pepperoni, and no bait in each bottle cap and let the ants come for 10 minutes, then they will go to the sugar first and the majority of the ants will be on the sugar after the 10 minutes as well. Research questions: What is the (Monomorium minimum’s) diet in the natural world and in homes? What do people feel about ants in their homes? Are ants sterile or not? Engineering Goals: The real world problem in my project is to keep ants out of our homes by finding which foods they like the best and keeping them away from the ants. Outcomes: This project’s outcome will show what type of foods Monomorium minimums like the best. Materials: 1. Sugar 2. Cheerios 3. Potato chips 4. Strawberries 5. Salt 6. pepperoni 7. ½ teaspoon 8. 7 shallow, small, containers 9. Stop watch 10. Camera(optional) Procedures: 1. A space will be found where you can place the baits. 2. Sugar, cheerios, potato chips, strawberries, salt, and peperoni will be measured into quantities of ½ teaspoon. 3. 7 shallow, small, containers with the baits will be filled and the last one will be kept empty. 4. All the containers will be placed down at the same time and the stopwatch will be started. 5. Wait until the first ant arrives to each bait and the time and what bait the ant went to will be recorded. 6. Pictures can be taken to enhance the project (optional). 7. Wait till the 10 minutes are up and then how many ants in each container will be counted and the data will be recorded. 8.
Steps 1-7 will be repeated for 3 days at the same time and spot
9. A conclusion will be made on the data including what bait was the most popular to the ants and what baits the ants went to first, second, third, etc.
Risk and safety: There are no risk or safety hazards in this science fair project
Data analysis:
1. Average out all the data
2. Make a bar graph with the categories sugar, cheerios, potato chips, fruit, salt, peperoni, and no bait.
3. Mark the baits on top of each bar from the order the ants visited each bait.
4. Compare the data and draw a conclusion.
Bibliography:
1. Ninety-Nine Gnats, Nits, and Nibblers, May R. Berenbaum and John Parker Sherrod, (1989), university of Illinois press.
2. Wicken, D, (April 20, 2006). Are ant’s disease-carriers? The Straight Dope, 16,
3. Adams E., Traniello J. (1981-01). Chemical interference competition by Monomorium minimum (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Oecologia, 51, 265-270.
4. Alfred M. Bruckstein (1993-03) why the ant trails look so straight and nice. The Mathematical Intelligencer, 0343-6993
5. Monomorium minimum. (2011). School of Ants. Retrieved from Dr. Eleanor's Book of Common Ants:
http://www.schoolofants.org/species/99
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