Day 5: Research teams

Research teams

The teams have been busy creating our own experiments for the past few days, and we have some good ideas. So now we are going to spend the next two days testing our hypotheses in both the lab and field settings. All teams are focusing on the negative agriculture affect of Atta (leaf cutter ant species) on La Anita's crop (the farm in which we are staying). Prevention of crop destruction is critical here. Below are the individual teams experiments. Take a look! Also in the slide show below, there should be an individual shot of each student from the past days. 

Team 1: Ian, Bri F., David, Thomas
Team Name: Davian Bromas
Title of Experiment: Effects of  saragundi and tabasco solutions on the effectiveness of Atta Cephalote's food sources.
Description of Experiment: Test certain materials for resistance against Atta Cephalotes. The materials are tobasco and Saragundi solutions. This would be done by essentially making a tea out of the materials and briefly soaking a melina leaf (the ants like those) and placing it near ants to see if they like to eat it compared to a not soaked leaf. 


Team 2:  Nic E., Mae, Alyna, Birch
Team Name: la hermandad (bamn) (sisterhood)
Title of Experiment: the effectiveness of detergent on improving longevity of citronella deterrent 
Description of Experiment: The application of a known ant repellent called citronella around the base of the Melina trees. The Melina trees are one of the ants favorite food. Around the farm detergent has been proven to improve the longevity of the insecticides. So therefore we will be using it as an additive to the citronella solution. 


Team 3: Quinn, Sam, Bri N., Brad
Team Name: Nortinos
Title of Experiment: Atta Cephalotes thorns...oh my!
Description of Experiment: The purpose is to design a physical barrier that could be used to keep the ants off of the crops. We know that ants don't cut the leaves of the Heart of Palm plant which has thorned bark so we will try and replicate it. Also, we will try to have a small pool or moat of water to prevent the ants as another type of physical barrier.


Team 4: Trevor, Nicky, Juilan, Matt
Team Name: Los Bandoleros
Title of Experiment: Effects of Sound on Atta behavior
Description of Experiment: Mimicking the sounds produced by the ants in order to influence their behavior, tricking them into leaving the plants alone without harming the ants or the environment.