Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hello all!

As the title specifies, I have a proper science fair idea hashed out, but i’m not quite sure if it would be ethical to animals. My idea is seeing if different types of light impact the attraction level of mosquitos to the light. As in, I will be using black light and UV light and seeing whether mosquitos are more attracted or less attracted to either. I plan to measure this by putting the lamps into a plexiglass cage, with a small hole for the mosquitos to fly in. After about 20 min, I will close the hole and count the mosquitos, then release them. I am just wondering if this would count as cruelty to animals, or are they exempt from animal laws as they count as pests. Please help!

Catch and release of mosquitoes shouldn't be an issue. In many schools you have to run the project past a review board of some sort when you have living subjects. That could be a group of teachers or maybe just your science teacher. I'd suggest asking and see if they're going to complain but I can't see why they should.

The ISEF rules are much more concerned about vertebrates and mosquitoes don't fit into the category. I don't remember reading anything about insects specifically. So if you're treating them humanely I can't imagine an IRB (committee) will give you a hard time.

Counting them could be a challenge. I'd be curious how you plan to do that.

Howard

Thank you for your response, Howard.

I have decided to record the mosquitos inside of the plexiglass box, and then slow down the footage later to a point where I will be able to easily count them. Thank you very much for the clarity on my project!