Excellent Engineers!

Mashpee 4th Graders Propose Gypsy Moth Controls

LANNAN M. O’BRIEN | Posted: Thursday, November 6, 2014 8:57 am

Quashnet School Ms. Martin's Class

Supervisory entomologist Hannah Nadel gave a presentation on gypsy moths to Quashnet School teacher Katie Martin's 4th grade class on November 3.

There was no fidgeting, chatting, or misbehavior in Quashnet teacher Katie Martin’s 4th grade class on Monday, November 3. Instead, students sat quietly in their seats, attention focused on guest presenter Hannah Nadel, a supervisory entomologist at the US Department of Agriculture laboratory on Otis Air National Guard Base.
The event was the culmination of a unit on the gypsy moth caterpillar in Ms. Martin’s two STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics) classes, for which students completed a life cycle lab with the Thornton Burgess Society and designed controls for the invasive species. The goal of the project, Ms. Martin wrote in an e-mail, was to engage students in real-life problem solving that requires higher-level thinking rather than memorization.

Dr. Nadel, who studies insect reproduction for her work, was invited to share her knowledge of the gypsy moth caterpillar and to critique students’ control designs.

Ms. Martin explained that at the base, there are security measures to keep the insects inside.

“We call it a containment facility,” Dr. Nadel said to the students during the first of two workshops that day. She described the damage that the invasive species can cause to local trees and other plants. People often think of trees as “big and strong,” she said, “but if caterpillars eat most of a tree’s leaves year after year, that tree will die.”

Following Dr. Nadel’s presentation, four students were invited to share their gypsy moth caterpillar control designs, each of which included a report describing their design accompanied by a drawing. Rhiannon J. Raymond proposed a trap that attracts male gypsy moths using a chemical-free scent that mimics that of the female gypsy moth. When the male lands on the structure, comprising “a circle with a dome on it,” she said, the dome opens and the moth is sucked inside.

“No more egg masses, no more caterpillars, no more pupas,” Rhiannon said matter-of-factly. “Problem solved.”

Dr. Nadel complimented Rhiannon’s strategy of using the species’ natural behavior against them, and said that similar traps exist currently and more are being developed. However, there was one problem.

“How do we get the traps out there?” she said, and Rhiannon said that people would have to set the traps. In that case, Dr. Nadel said, the plan could be expensive: workers might have to be paid $12 or $13 per hour to place the traps in remote areas with concentrated populations of gypsy moths.

Kimberly J. Lemelin, too, said she planned to use the female gypsy moth scent to trap males. Instead of a dome trap, she would create a scented soap and place it in a bucket of water. Attracted to the female scent, male gypsy moths will fly into the bucket and drown.

When the buckets are full, she said that they will be dumped in the trash

“If they are left out there something bad could happen because an animal could drink some of [the soapy water] and get sick or hurt,” Kimberly said. “another reason is because I didn’t want it to go into a water resource.”

Dr. Nadel liked the idea of using a soap that would create a film on the water’s surface, making it difficult for male gypsy moths to escape, and lauded Kimberly’s concern for human safety as well as the environment.

Erin M. Smith and Harrison J. Dwinger each proposed vacuum-like structures. Erin’s technology would be designed to destroy gypsy moth caterpillar egg masses, while Harry’s would “suck up” caterpillars in the larval stage. When asked how the trap would differentiate the caterpillars from non-invasive species, Harry said that his design would include a small video camera to identify the insects it traps and sort them into separate containers.

“I like the fact that it’s environmentally safe,” Dr. Nadel said of Erin’s “egg mass fighter,” but added that it would take a long time to eliminate the invasive species in North America using that technology.

She said that Harrison’s proposal resembles traps that scientists are using today. Like his, the traps recognize particular insects in order to target the invasive species.

“I’m very impressed that you thought of that,” Dr. Nadel said.