1. Question
What ground insects
are there in our forest
and what material will
attract ground insects
into our forest?

2. Why we chose this
We chose this question because we love skinks
and geckos

3. Background
We have a Skink and Gecko area beside our
Native forest at school and we haven’t seen
any there. We talked to an expert who told us
we need to attract bugs/insects for them to eat.
So we needed to find out what insect are
already in our forest, what insects skinks and
geckoes eat and also what habitat the insects
like to live in.

4. Hypothesis
-What We Think
We think we can make the surrounding where
our skink and gecko area more ‘insect friendly’.
Sam. I think that there will be more insects under
the stone block because it is darker and I think
insects like dark places where they can hide from
their enemies.
Sally. I think insects will like protection and food
and not too dry in our forest.I think they will like
the wood the best.

5. Test
Method
Place down materials in our forest close to the
skink and gecko area
FOR 7 WEEKS every Wednesday check under
materials and see what’s there. Record what is
there.

6. Materials
Brick
Stone block
Wood
Drift wood
Carpet

7. Result/record
The main insect/bug we found over seven
weeks was the Ground beetle and it was
mainly seen under the wood.
We found a small amount of little spiders
Over the 7 weeks insects found under the
Carpet 2, Drift wood 42, Wood 19, Brick/Stone
block 5 insects or spiders.

8. How We Made It Fair
Testing
We checked under every object each time and
we replaced the material where we had it and
always wrote down the amount of beetles,
spiders or insects there.
We did the testing in the side of the forest
where we found the most insects when we did
our first insect count and leaf litter count

9. Further Question
We wanted to know what type of leaf litter
ground beetles liked so we are going to do a
beetle test.

10. Hypothesis
- What We Think
We think it will go to the damp dark side
because when we checked in the forest the
ground beetle was always under the wood.

11. MATERIALS
Box
Dry leaf litter
Damp leaf litter
Black piece of paper
Beetle.

12. Record/Result
The beetle went first to the dry dark side then
it went to the damp light side.It stayed in the
damp dark side. It was there the next morning
We figured out that beetles like dark damp
places.

13. How we made it fair
testing
We had a even amount of leaf litter on each
side.
We put the beetle straight in the middle of the
box.
Put beetle in centre of the box to see which
condition he hides in
Check again the next morning

14. Future Action
We will put more wood and piles of wood
around and close to the skink and gecko area.
This will give homes and shelter for the insects
If we did the experiment again we would put
the materials in other areas close to the skink
area, like beside the boundary fence or in long
grass because insects live there too.

15. Conclusion
Insect live in all sorts off places in our forest on
the ground, in the leaf litter, in the cracks of
tree trunks, on the leaves on trees.
Ground insects like mainly living under drift
wood in our forest and in sheltered places
where there is damp leaf litter
If we put more logs and wood and hiding
places in our forest we will get more insects for
skinks and geckos to find.