April Blog

April showers bring May flowers, but also ticks!! This month we’ve been frequently testing between our five main attractants: Butanoic, Propanoic, Hexanoic, and Lactic acid, and Ammonium Bicarbonate. We introduced a new approach with y-shaped tubes that attach two plastic bags to the end. The idea was to test attractants in pairs and collect data based on which side the tick walked to when initially placed at the end of the tube. We placed one variable in each bag and recorded the time it takes for the ticks to resurface from the tubes. So far we’ve tested the following pairs: Butanoic vs. Hexanoic, Butanoic vs. Propanoic, Propanoic vs. nothing, Hexanoic vs. Propanoic, and Butanoic vs. nothing. As we narrow down to our final attractant and make some small changes to our design we are hoping to have our final prototype in the coming weeks. We have also been working on our presentation for EurekaFest, which we are very enthusiastic for!!