Wisconsin Potato Traps:

Ripon College Teacher-Education Students Trap Creatures

We made 6 traps. To hollow out the potatoes we used "grapefruit spoons". These worked very well. Four of our traps survived three days to be collected again. (We suspect that racoons or other creatures destroyed or carried away one and heavy rains washed away the other..) The traps were buried from Friday, Sept. 7, to Monday, Sept. 10, 2001.

Note: Due to an accident, the pictures of us as we examined our traps were lost. However, we'll add some pictures of us and of a second "example" trap with its contents as soon as we can.

OUR TRAPS THAT DIDN'T WORK (but we looked at other groups' traps that did)!

1. Johnson Hall Trap:

We buried our trap outside Johnson Hall (college student residence hall or hostel) on a slight incline. The soil was very moist due to recent heavy rain and the burial spot was in the shade. We checked it every day and found nothing each time. The last time we checked, it had rolled down the hill and was open and empty.

Melissa Lund: Although I am not a fan of bugs, especially spiders, I enjoyed this experiment. I would have liked to have had our potato collect bugs but unfortunatly Nature came into effect. It was fun watching other classmates potatos' though!

Matt Rostowfske: I think that this was a great way to learn about our environment at Ripon. This would have been better if the rain wouldn't have washed it away. The insects that our classmates brought in were cool.

Michael Coles: I think that this was a good idea, to help us learn how to look up info. on other types of bugs. We had to use our classmates' info. and potato to learn from, since ours washed away.

2. Oshkosh Trap:

Janice Keck, the keeper of this trap, also checked her group's trap daily and found no creatures. When she went to get it to bring to class, it was gone! She suspects racoons but can't be sure because she didn't see the theft occur.

OUR TRAPS THAT DID COLLECT CREATURES:

3. The Cedar Hill Trap (Y Delm ar Fryn Cedrwydd)

Here is the trap in place under the cedars (trowel points to partially exposed potato)

The trap was buried in sandy soil under a dense stand of cedar trees for which the surrounding farm property had been named in the 19th century. Although we had more than 5 centimeters of rain during the time the potato was in the soil, the soil around it was barely damp when it was dug up three days later.

We found 4 sow bugs (each 5 to 6 mm long). According to our field guide to "Spiders and Their Kin", which has a few pages about crustaceans that live on land, the sow bugs we had are the variety oniscus asellus, a variety that came to the USA from Europe. Since most of us are also descendants of immigrant families, we can sympathize. We looked at them with magnifying lenses to get a better look and identify them more accurately.

Janice Keck: I'm a "returning student". I think we would have gotten more creatures if we had buried it deeper.

Melissa Barribeau: I'm a Junior (3rd year) College Student majoring in Elementary (primary) Education and English. I thought this was a fun experiment and our bugs were pretty cute.

Erin O'Connell: I'm a sophomore (2nd year) College student majoring in Elementary Education and Spanish. I thought the sow bugs we collected were energetic and interesting. What amazing tiny creatures!

Mary Williams-Norton: Yr athrawes ydw i. Mae Fferm Bryn Cedrwydd yn yr enw ein ty^ ni. Gwnes i y delm yn ystod y dosbarth a ches i ei chladdu ger ein ty^ ni. 'Dw i'n meddwl hefyd bod ein "sow bugs" ni yn ddiddorol iawn. Athrawes ffiseg ydw i. 'Dw ddim yn gwybod llawer o bethau am "mini-beasts" ond mae'n hwyl i ddysgu!! 'Dw i'n meddwl y mai Cymraeg sy'n hwyl i ddysgu hefyd, wrth gwrs. ('Dw i'n gobeithio eich bod chi medru deall!) Translation for those who don't speak Welsh or those who do but can't understand mine: I'm the teacher. Cedar Hill Farm is the name of our house. I made the trap during class and buried it near our house. I also think that our sow bugs are very interesting. I'm a physics teacher. I don't know a lot about mini-beasts but it's fun to learn!! I think that Welsh is fun to learn also, of course. (I hope you can understand.)

4. P P T (Paulson Potato Trap)

Our potato was buried in a wet mossy soil. The soil was located under a tree in a shady area. The potato was also rained on during a storm, which may have contributed to the experiment.

Well, there was a variety of "mini-beasts" found in our trap. Our trap was taken up overwhelmingly by ants, which probably occurred because of the soil we used. We also had 2 slugs, which were actually on the outside of the potato when we dug it up. Also there was a worm squirming around in the potato. We also had 2 sow bugs in our potato and we found these the most interesting.

Jake Paulson: I did not think we would have any bugs because of the rain, but the ants even made the potato their home!

Katie Avila: I thought this was a really neat experiment. I learned a lot about different kinds of insects. I also think the idea of international experimenting is a wonderful way to learn about other places and soil conditions.

Todd Reinke: This was a great experiment, that was very worthwhile to take part in. I was very surprised at the variety of bugs we caught, especially after the storm!

5. The Creature of the Creek Trap

The trap was buried by a creek in dark, nutrient rich soil in a moist shady area. It rained every day the trap was in the ground.

We found 2 slugs (one 4.5 centimeters long and the other 3 centimeters long), 1 spider (0.5 centimeter long), 4 sow bugs (variety of woodlouse) 1 centimeter long each, and 1 worm (4 to 5 centimeters long).

Patti Reimann: I do not care for bugs. But I found this project interesting and fun. I was surprised by how many mini-beasts we trapped. As a future teacher, I would probably use this activity in my classroom.

Kim Meller: I love bugs, as long as they're not on me! I thought the project was a lot of fun and very interesting. It was entertaining to see how many bugs were actually trapped in the potato. I would definitely use this experiment in the classroom because it is fun, interesting, and children as well as adults can learn from it.

Stephanie Smith: Wow! What a cool experience. Really I did not know what to expect when we buried the potato, but the creatures that we "trapped" were really neat to look at and see close up. Anyone reading this shoul really give it a try!!

6. Spudnik:

This potato trap was buried near the Shaler (student residence or hostel) exit. There was a lot of rain over the weekend. It was buried in mud but in a "sunny" location, although there was not much sun shining over the weekend.

We trapped 1 slug about 2 centimeters long. There were also 2 tiny white bugs each less than 1 millimeter and 1 tiny black/brown bug less than 2 millimeters long.

My name is Katie, and I'm a sophomore at Ripon College. The most interesting "mini-beast" that was caught was the slug. He was pretty big and left a slimy trail behind him when he moved. Slugs are the best.

My name is Melissa Swanson and I am a Junior Elementary Education and Psychology major from Horicon, Wisconsin. Although my potato trap only contained four different creatures, it was still interesting to fin out what "mini-beasts" live by my dormitory. The funnest part of the experiment for me was watching the slug and other crawly bugs move about the potato.

Hi! I'm Martha. I'm a senior (fourth year) elementary education major from Racine, Wisconsin. We didn't get a whole lot of bugs, but the small ones were really fast movers, while the large slug was very slow and curled up at perceived danger. It also left a slime trail behind it. When I poked it with the tip of my pen, my pen got slimy. It was interesting to see how the bugs were already living in our potato after only two days (Friday evening to Monday morning).

My name is Katie Plier from Ripon College. I found it very interesting to discover the many different creatures that we caught within our potato trap.

What's next?

As a class we discussed what we would like to investigate further. Several of us would like to make traps out of different vegetables and fruits--apples, yams, etc.--to see if traps with more sugar (or more acid) would attract more and/or different creatures.

Recently we visited Murray Park Elementary School and Mrs. Simacek's class of Grade 4 (9 year old) pupils. After we collected the pupils' ideas about what kinds of creatures live in the soil, we helped them make several potato traps and told them about the Ysgol San Sior project. We looked at the map of the world and pointed out the places where children are trying out the project. They will study their results soon and then send them along with pictures to "Potato-Trap World Central Headquarters" at Ysgol San Sior to share their results with the rest of the world!

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