Aims and Goals: (Alternative Pesticides)

      The over-usage of pesticides has lead to many environmental and municipal problems in modern times. These chemicals are leaking into streams, rivers, lakes, the ocean, and our freshwater tables. The presence of these chemicals in the environment has lead to a sharp decline in amphibian populations. They also affect the health of non-targeted insect species like honeybees. These chemicals are bio accumulating in the higher trophic levels of ecosystems, affecting the entire ecological system as a whole. These higher trophic species affected include, predatory birds, predatory mammals, predatory fish and humans. The overuse of pesticides by humans is pragmatically shortsighted for a species that ranks at the top of the food chain. Local organic farming has become popular in recent years as an alternative to pesticide usage and industrial agriculture in general. Our insect traps could be applied to organic agriculture as a safe and cost affordable alternative to pesticides. Water bottles are an abundant resource available to anyone, so rather then adding pesticides to an environment already filled with plastic waste we propose to re-appropriate the function of plastic waste for pest control.