Attracting Cockroaches with Different Substances

Reason: The reason I did this project was because I am absolutely fascinated by cockroaches. I think they are really interesting. It also makes me happy that I’m the only person I know of who is not scared of cockroaches. We have cockroaches that will come into our house to escape from the cold outside, so I thought, why not get rid of some of them? But I had to know what kind of bait to put out for them in order to accomplish this. So that is how I came up with this.

Hypothesis: If the peanut butter, the butter, the cheese, and the bread are tested, then the butter will attract the most cockroaches. If the peanut butter, the butter, the cheese, and the bread are tested, then the bread will attract the least amount of cockroaches.

Experiment

What I did: Well, first I put four 4 by 10 sticky traps on our counter. Then, I got out some butter, some peanut butter, some bread, and some cheese out. After that, I got a tablespoon and scooped the substances out. I put the tablespoon of each substance on its own sticky trap. The butter on one, the peanut butter on another, and so on and so forth. Then I turned off the light and went to bed. When I got up, I got my data book out and went out to our counters. When I turned on the light, I counted how many cockroaches were on each sticky trap and I recorded my results. I tested this out ten times, and each time I recorded my results.

Discussion

Comparing: It was very interesting because according to my research, cockroaches like moist substances that they can easily pick up. But instead of going for the moist substances I put out, they went for the dry ones! Another thing I didn’t look at before was the temperature. The temperature really affected my results. According to my research, cockroaches can be seen the most inside houses when it is cold outside. And my results proved that it was true. When I did my project, it showed that as the temperature got colder, more and more cockroaches got stuck on the sticky trap.

Uncontrolled Events: I think one uncontrolled event was the temperature. The temperature fell while I was doing my project. Usually, cockroaches will come indoors to escape from the cold outdoors. More cockroaches came in when the temperature dropped. Another thing I couldn’t control would be the exact place I put the sticky traps. I mean, I did put them on the counter, but I couldn’t put them all in the exact same place. What if a cockroach was just making his way across the counters when he got stuck on the sticky trap?

What I would have done differently: If I had to do my project again, I would add in the temperatures of the night as well, because it really does affect my results. Either that, or I would make sure the temperature was pretty much the same each night. If it wasn’t around the temperature that I wanted, I would wait for the next night. I would also have added more bait to test because four traps really isn’t that much.

Other Experiments that can be done: Some other experiments that can be done would be like, how the temperature effects on how active the cockroaches are, or what traps trap cockroaches best. You could also see if cockroaches are more active at night or in the daytime. According to my research though, cockroaches like to come out at night, while it’s still dark out, because to them, light means that somebody is there and can hurt them. But when it’s dark out, that’s the signal that everybody is asleep. One last test somebody could do, would be how long a cockroach could survive without food or water. Would it be affected if they had been fed a lot before the experiment started? What if they had only been fed a little bit before the experiment started?

Conclusion

Results: My results showed that the roaches went for the bread and cheese more than the butter and peanut butter, so my hypothesis was wrong. Each night, hardly any cockroaches went for the butter and peanut butter. They would mostly all go to the bread and cheese.