Ant Traps

Our project is about the collection of ants using traps with baits. Basically that means we set traps out with different foods on each trap. We like to use different baits and try to put the traps in different types of environments. For example we put traps put in an area with a lot of vegetation around or in area where there’s little to no vegetation at all.  We then leave the traps out for an hour and then collect them. The collection process is simply just quickly grabbing the traps and put them in separate sandwich bags so we do not mess up our data by mixing up the bait types.

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Our baits are mostly liquid base by Ants cannot carry liquids with their arms or legs. So what we do is make our liquids and then soak cotton balls in it. We make our liquid solutions by following a procedure off a website we got. The liquid solutions that we have are: Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Amino Acids mixed with water, Honey mixed with water, Salt mixed with water, and sugar mixed with water. Another bait that we use is Pecan Sandies. Our procedure is based on the School of Ants (http://www.schoolofants.org/  )and Ant Picnic  (http://studentsdiscover.org/lesson/ant-picnic/ )

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After we set and collect our traps,we go and begin to identify and separate the different types of ants that were collected. In order to identify then we must freeze them for at least 24 hours. After we have froze those ants, we sort through them and identify them by using an ant book that focuses on all the ants in the Chicago area. After we do that we put those ants into vials with labels. The labels have date, bait type, initials, area (green or paved), time set, time collected, and ant species.