urgent help for school

Joined
Jan 24, 2017
Messages
10
hello everyone, i'm doing a project for school and i need to do an experiment, i'm thinking of something with insects or spiders, but i only have 2.5 weeks, and i live in the netherlands. Any sugestions on what i should do as an experiment is appreciated!!
 

MetalMan2004

Arachnodemon
Joined
Oct 14, 2016
Messages
676
Thats a pretty open question. If you give sime more details and get the ball rollingfor us I'm sure some people will chime in.

I'd suggest any expriment that doesn't hurt the spiders :)
 

Bunyan van Asten

Arachnoknight
Joined
Oct 5, 2016
Messages
271
Thats a pretty open question. If you give sime more details and get the ball rollingfor us I'm sure some people will chime in.

I'd suggest any expriment that doesn't hurt the spiders :)
Well, i just need to do research on why something happens the way it does, or what changes over time or how creatures fair when treated differently, there's quite a bit more, i can do, but i can't think of anything right now.
 

UltimateDracoMeteor

Arachnosquire
Joined
Aug 26, 2016
Messages
95
I know that BugzUK has a good selection of insects that you could keep as pets and do your research on. You could look at whether it's possible to condition mantids to prefer a certain food like cockroaches have been proven to do.
 

WeightedAbyss75

Arachnoangel
Joined
Feb 22, 2014
Messages
921
How about you buy two of the same species, with very similar sizes (probably a T or scorp maybe? Coukd probably use many diff bugs though) and put them in vastly different setups and see how fast they grow, how mich they eat, or where they like to be. You could check that everyday and might get some interesting results :D Just an idea though ;)
 

chanda

Arachnoking
Old Timer
Joined
Jun 27, 2010
Messages
2,229
Two and a half weeks isn't much time - particularly at this time of year, when it's too cold for most of the native species.

Do you already have any bugs, or do you have easy access to some? Spiders in the cellar? Roaches in the kitchen? A local exotic pet store that sells pet bugs - or feeders, like crickets, mealworms, or fruit flies?

Are you interested in keeping the bugs as pets after the experiment has concluded, or are you just going to get rid of them?

If you are not interested in keeping them as pets, I'd steer clear of long-lived (and potentially expensive) pets like tarantulas or scorpions. You can easily design experiments around any locally-caught bugs or inexpensive feeder insects, then either turn them loose (if they are native species) after you are done with them or just let them die/dispose of them if they are feeders.

The nice thing about crickets, fruit flies, and other feeders is that they have a relatively short life cycle and grow quickly, so you could easily design an experiment that varies the conditions they are kept in, such as temperature, size of habitat, humidity, light levels, hours of daylight, type or quantity of food, etc. and see results in a matter of days (if you are looking at growth rate) and - with something like fruit flies - even see the results on multiple generations over your two-week period.
 

Bunyan van Asten

Arachnoknight
Joined
Oct 5, 2016
Messages
271
Two and a half weeks isn't much time - particularly at this time of year, when it's too cold for most of the native species.

Do you already have any bugs, or do you have easy access to some? Spiders in the cellar? Roaches in the kitchen? A local exotic pet store that sells pet bugs - or feeders, like crickets, mealworms, or fruit flies?

Are you interested in keeping the bugs as pets after the experiment has concluded, or are you just going to get rid of them?

If you are not interested in keeping them as pets, I'd steer clear of long-lived (and potentially expensive) pets like tarantulas or scorpions. You can easily design experiments around any locally-caught bugs or inexpensive feeder insects, then either turn them loose (if they are native species) after you are done with them or just let them die/dispose of them if they are feeders.

The nice thing about crickets, fruit flies, and other feeders is that they have a relatively short life cycle and grow quickly, so you could easily design an experiment that varies the conditions they are kept in, such as temperature, size of habitat, humidity, light levels, hours of daylight, type or quantity of food, etc. and see results in a matter of days (if you are looking at growth rate) and - with something like fruit flies - even see the results on multiple generations over your two-week period.
I already have a few dubias and 2 glue spitting spiders. So i think i can use those, and yes, i and prepared to keep the 2 spiders after the experiment, but it's really hard to get acces to fruit flies here, because the shipment is really slow and no store sells them anywhere near me...
 

Andrea82

Arachnoemperor
Joined
Jan 12, 2016
Messages
3,686
I already have a few dubias and 2 glue spitting spiders. So i think i can use those, and yes, i and prepared to keep the 2 spiders after the experiment, but it's really hard to get acces to fruit flies here, because the shipment is really slow and no store sells them anywhere near me...
Terra-equipment.eu delivers feeders within 24/36 hours, including fruitflies ;).
Which grade are you in? 2,5 weeks isn't much time.
 

Chris LXXIX

ArachnoGod
Joined
Dec 25, 2014
Messages
5,845
I love your nickname, the "van" part is pure The Netherlands nation... (Marco van Basten :kiss: I was at San Siro when he retired) and reminds me of Vennegoor of Hesselink. Those noble ancient Dutch names.

As for your question I don't have a clue, aside for throwing a C.minax in the head of a bald annoying teacher u_u
 

Jacob Ma

Arachnoknight
Joined
Feb 2, 2016
Messages
281
Realistically, the suggestions of @UltimateDracoMeteor and @WeightedAbyss75 aren't very plausible for a period of only two weeks until the end date of your project. I was thinking you could try the effects of strong-odored chemicals like alcohol on the death rates/behaviors of adult fruit flies.

For a project such as this, however, I would honestly recommend for you to stick with the research side of the project. A full-blown experiment using live animals should have more time to plan to start with, and you'll require a fair investment into the procedure itself whether it would be economically or temporally. Despite any good suggestions that anyone here (including me) mentions, two and a half weeks is just not worth spending more than enough hours and/or money than you really need to, and I know this from personal experience.

If you would still like to perform an experiment, I would use an organism like some kind of plant in an experiment such as "rate of photosynthesis using different concentrations of CO2," where you could mix different concentrations of baking soda with water and perform the experiment in an airtight container, measuring which plant has produced the most oxygen after x days.

As cool as it would be to show off a live experiment with insects, simplicity is key in a situation like this.
 
Joined
Jan 24, 2017
Messages
10
Realistically, the suggestions of @UltimateDracoMeteor and @WeightedAbyss75 aren't very plausible for a period of only two weeks until the end date of your project. I was thinking you could try the effects of strong-odored chemicals like alcohol on the death rates/behaviors of adult fruit flies.

For a project such as this, however, I would honestly recommend for you to stick with the research side of the project. A full-blown experiment using live animals should have more time to plan to start with, and you'll require a fair investment into the procedure itself whether it would be economically or temporally. Despite any good suggestions that anyone here (including me) mentions, two and a half weeks is just not worth spending more than enough hours and/or money than you really need to, and I know this from personal experience.

If you would still like to perform an experiment, I would use an organism like some kind of plant in an experiment such as "rate of photosynthesis using different concentrations of CO2," where you could mix different concentrations of baking soda with water and perform the experiment in an airtight container, measuring which plant has produced the most oxygen after x days.

As cool as it would be to show off a live experiment with insects, simplicity is key in a situation like this.
okay, i'll see what i can do, thanks for the suggestions.
 

SpiderSling2017

Arachnopeon
Joined
Jan 28, 2017
Messages
19
if it was me, I would the project of how Ts live, catch prey, etc

A trapdoor is very different to a huntsman for example
 
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