Booth Id:
ANIM010
Category:
Animal Sciences
Year:
2020
Finalist Names:
McGaha, Carter (School: Vici Public Schools)
Abstract:
The reason I chose to do this project was to benefit my community and myself. That is how I came up with my question, “Will Dawn Dish Soap, Red Cedar Oil, Castile Soap, or Neem Oil better decrease the number of squash bugs, Anasa tristis?” I hypothesized that Castile Soap would lower the infestation rate of Anasa tristis. My independent variables were Dawn Dish Soap, Red Cedar Oil, Castile Soap, and Neem Oil. My dependent variable was the number of squash bugs collected. My controlled variables were the same amount of time spraying each plant, same time of day spraying each plant, and the same liquid storage container.
I tilled up an area of land big enough to plant 50 squash plants. Once the squash plants had started producing fruit, I sprayed the liquids onto each plant at 8:00 a.m. The next day at 8:00 a.m., I sucked up all squash bugs on each plant.
Dawn Dish Soap and Red Cedar Oil were the two liquids that lowered the infestation rate the best with zero squash bugs on each test. Neem Oil came next with 21 squash bugs. Then, the Control had a total of 104. Finally, Castile Soap had a total of 170 squash bugs.
In conclusion, my data did not support my hypothesis that Castile Soap would lower the infestation rate of the squash bugs, Anasa tristis.