Stop the Invasion!

          On November 3rd Mrs.Hannah Nadel came to our classroom to give a presentation on her job. She is an entomologist. An entomologist is someone who studies insects. She is the supervisor of insect production at Otis Laboratory.  Mrs.Nadel works really hard on making the environment a better place. She does this by using an engineer's technology that will help eliminate  invasive insects. Most people don't know much about her job, but it is very important because without it, some invasive insects could munch down our native plants and animals. The invaders will go out of control because they have no natural predators. We hope people can help stop the invaders! 

                             Mrs. Hannah Nadel has tried many traps. One is called Tangle Foot, that is a strategy where you tie tape around an Oak Tree's trunk. Then, you put a sticky substance which won't easily dry up on the tape. Finally, when the Gypsy Moth caterpillar trys to climb up the tree trunk it will get caught in the glue. Another trap she has tried are little decoy females that spray pheromone, that will trick the males so they can't identify the true female. She also has successfully used a virus that will only sicken or kill the Gypsy Moth. Mrs. Hannah Nadel and other employees spread the virus by having a crew  flying in a helicopter to drop the virus on the forest to kill the Gypsy invaders. When they let out the virus it looks like a helicopter dropping water on a forest fire. Both educated classes behaved well during the presentation. Mrs. Hannah Nadel is very intelligent when it comes to invasive insects! 
                After Mrs. Nadel spoke,  a few of our classmates gave a presentation of their own design. The first student was Caden Harding. His design was a weighted certain trap. His trap works by having a painted black box with the females pheromone in it. There would be a weighted curtain so the Gypsy Moth can get in but, can't escape. After Caden, Sadie Biehl presented her design, which was a Resin Gun. She plans to insert resin onto the caterpillars cocoon and hopefully the caterpillar will get trapped and die. The next student was Collin Frost. His design is a glass jar with Oak leaves in it to fool the Gypsy Moth caterpillars into getting trapped. The last presentation was Alex Coggeshall's design. It functions by inserting a female decoy into a plastic jar with bark around it. The female decoy will be sprayed with pheromone. He hopes that the male will get trapped in the container and stop the life cycle of the Gypsy Moth. 
          Mrs. Hannah Nadel was our invader today, but she was not one that we had to eliminate! We certainly learned a lot, Thank you Mrs. Hannah Nadel and Ms. Martin!

Written AND typed by: Sadie, Sarah, and Jillian