Victoria Koupal
Avon High School
Repelling Insects

    Keeping insects out of the house would be important to anyone. But to keep them out, you would probably have to use expensive chemicals.  Hedge balls and been purported to repel insects. They are readily available, cheap, and much safer than some chemical repellents.. The purpose of this experiment was to see the effects of crickets when exposed to a hedge ball.
    I used a 450 cm tube and placed a hedge ball at one end. Then I placed 20 crickets in the middle to see if they were attracted or repelled by the hedge ball. After four hour trials, I counted up the amount that passed the halfway point. The majority of insects were on the half were there was no hedge ball. I then repeated this experiment with no hedge ball in the tube. In these trials the crickets were split approximately even between the half with the hedge ball and the half without the hedge ball.
    From the data collected, I have concluded that hedge balls to repel crickets. If properly placed, hedge balls may prove to be a cheaper, safer, and effective way to repel some insects from you home.