A Picnic in the Park

A Science Fair Project

for

SCE 5745 Statistics for Science Teachers

by

Leslie Prohaska

Question

What foods are most likely to attract

ants on a picnic?

Research

Pavement ants, or, Tetramorium caespitum, are

black or brown and usually make their nests in and

under pavement.

They mainly live in the eastern United States.

Pavement ant colonies usually have 3,000 – 4,000

members and several queens.

Pavement ants eat insects, grease, seeds,

honeydew, honey, bread, meats, nuts and cheese.

Pavement ants are not a health threat, but can

contaminate food by leaving waste behind.

Hypothesis

Pavement ants and most of the other

ants that I read about, seem to like sweet

foods like melon and honey.

My hypothesis is that the sweeter foods,

the chocolate icing and the regular jelly,

will attract more ants than the other

foods.

Procedure

1. Turn a plate upside down and trace 5 circles the

same size around the plate and number them 1-5.

2. Place ½ tsp. of reduced sugar grape jelly in circle 1,

½ tsp. of grape jelly in circle 2, ½ tsp. of peanut

butter in circle 3, ½ tsp. of mayonnaise in circle 4,

and ½ tsp. of chocolate icing in circle 5.

3. Place plate outside near an active ant pile .

4. Count and record the time and number of ants in

each circle every 5 minutes for 75 minutes.

5. Repeat steps 1-4 at two other times of the day, to see

if ants are more active in the morning, afternoon, or

late afternoon.

Procedure

1 2

3 4 ant

Data/Trial #1

Time 1 2 3 4 5

2:20 0 0 1 3 0

2:25 0 1 0 1 2

2:30 0 0 1 1 0

2:35 0 0 0 0 0

2:40 0 0 0 1 2

2:45 1 0 1 3 1

2:50 0 0 0 4 0

2:55 0 0 0 0 0

3:00 0 0 0 0 0

3:05 1 0 0 1 0

3:10 1 1 1 3 2

3:15 0 2 0 1 0

3:20 0 0 0 0 0

3:25 2 1 0 0 0

3:30 1 0 0 0 0

3:35 3 3 1 5 0

Totals 9 8 5 23 7

Data/Trial #2

Time 1 2 3 4 5

5:00 3 3 0 5 0

5:05 2 1 1 2 1

5:10 1 0 1 3 1

5:15 1 0 0 0 0

5:20 0 0 0 0 0

5:25 2 0 1 3 1

5:30 0 0 1 3 0

5:35 2 0 0 1 0

5:40 4 1 1 2 0

5:45 2 3 0 4 0

5:50 2 1 0 0 2

5:55 0 0 0 0 0

6:00 2 0 1 3 1

6:05 2 1 1 2 1

6:10 1 0 0 3 0

6:15 2 3 1 4 1

Totals 26 13 8 35 8

Data/Trial #3

Time 1 2 3 4 5

9:15 1 0 1 1 0

9:20 2 1 1 2 1

9:25 2 1 2 2 0

9:30 1 0 0 3 0

9:35 3 1 0 1 1

9:40 1 1 2 3 1

9:45 1 0 1 4 1

9:50 2 1 2 3 0

9:55 2 0 1 2 1

10:00 2 0 1 1 0

10:05 1 1 1 3 2

10:10 1 2 0 2 1

10:15 1 0 0 1 2

10:20 1 2 0 1 0

10:25 0 0 0 0 0

10:30 0 0 1 1 0

Totals 21 10 13 30 10

Data/Averages

Trial 1/2:20 Trial 2/5:00 Trial 3/9:15 Averages

Reduced sugar jelly 9 26 21 18.66667

Jelly 8 13 10 10.33333

Peanut Butter 5 8 13 8.666667

Mayo 23 35 30 29.33333

Chocolate icing 7 8 10 8.333333

Total Visits 52 90 84 75.33333

Graph/Trial #1

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

2:20 2:25 2:30 2:35 2:40 2:45 2:50 2:55 3:00 3:05 3:10 3:15 3:20 3:25 3:30 3:35

Nu

mb

er

of A

nts

Vis

itin

g

Ant Visits Each Five Minutes Trial #1

Reduced sugar jelly Jelly Peanut Butter Mayo Chocolate Icing

0

5

10

15

20

25

Reduced

sugar jelly

Jelly Peanut

Butter

Mayo Chocolate

icing

Nu

mb

er

of to

tal a

nt

vis

its

Ant Visits On Picnic Items Trial #1

Graph/Trial #2

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

5:00 5:05 5:10 5:15 5:20 5:25 5:30 5:35 5:40 5:45 5:50 5:55 6:00 6:05 6:10 6:15

Nu

mb

er

of A

nts

Vis

itin

g

Ant Visits Each Five Minutes Trial #2

Reduced sugar jelly Jelly Peanut Butter Mayo Chocolate Icing

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

Reduced

sugar jelly

Jelly Peanut

Butter

Mayo Chocolate

icing

Nu

mb

er

of To

tal A

nt

Vis

its

Ant Visits on Picnic Items Trial #2

Graph/Trial #3

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

Nu

mb

er

of A

nts

Vis

itin

g

Ant Visits Each Five Minutes Trial #3

Reduced sugar jelly Jelly Peanut Butter Mayo Chocolate Icing

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

Reduced

sugar jelly

Jelly Peanut

Butter

Mayo Chocolate

icing

Nu

mb

er

of To

tal A

nt

Vis

its

Ant Visits on Picnic Items Trial #3

Graph/Averages

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

Reduced sugar jellyJelly Peanut Butter MayoChocolate icing

Tota

l N

um

be

r o

f A

nt

Vis

its

Ant Visits in Trials 1-3

Trial 1/2:20

Trial 2/5:00

Trial 3/9:15

18.7

10.38.7

29.3

8.3

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

Reduced

sugar jelly

Jelly Peanut

Butter

Mayo Chocolate

icing

Av

era

ge

Nu

mb

er

of A

nt

Vis

its

Average Ant Visits Per Picnic Item

What are the confidence

levels of these averages?

σ

Reduced sugar jelly 18.7 8.74

Jelly 10.3 2.52

Peanut Butter 8.7 4.04

Mayo 29.3 6.03

Chocolate icing 8.3 1.53

This leads to the following confidence intervals:

Reduced sugar jelly: 18.7± 1.1

Jelly: 10.3 ± 0.3

Peanut Butter: 8.7 ± 0.5

Mayo: 29.3 ± 0.8

Chocolate Icing: 8.3 ± 0.2

0.5

5.5

10.5

15.5

20.5

25.5

30.5

Reduced sugar jelly Jelly Peanut Butter Mayo Chocolate icing

Nu

mb

er

of

an

t v

isits

Averages With Confidence Intervals

Conclusion

My hypothesis was incorrect, the data shows

that mayonnaise, with 95% confidence, was the

most popular item for the ants at any time of

the day. This means you should protect your

potato salad and ham sandwiches more than

your desserts and peanut butter & jelly

sandwiches when you are on a picnic. Next time

I would like to look at possible ways of keeping

the ants away completely such as using OFF or

having a citronella lamp.

References

Ants - facts about ants. (n.d.). Pest Control

Information for School Kids and Teachers -

PestWorldforKids.org. Retrieved July 09,

2010, from

http://www.pestworldforkids.org/ants.html