Kids Science Experiments

Making Live Bugs

This is a gross-out experiment to *make* living bugs. Actually, you aren't making them, but you will be bringing them out so you can see them.

Our Science Experiment

We are going to make bugs come out of fruit.

What you need

1 ripe (extra brown) banana
1 glass jar

How to perform this experiment

Peel the banana and put it in the jar. Put the jar outside in warm weather or in your garage in colder weather. It is likely your parents won't appreciate it if you keep the jar indoors.

Watch!

Over a few days you will see little tiny fruit flies buzzing around your banana. In time, they will use their energy from eating the banana and lay their eggs. Eventually you will also see little baby maggots from the eggs.

Why did it do that?

Fruit flies seem to just appear in our kitchens on occassion. This is because they can travel into our homes, unbeknownst to us, as larvae on the fruit we buy. The adults lay their eggs, invisible to the naked eye, on bananas and other fruits, which later hatch while the fruit is in our fruit bowls.

I wonder what would happen if

I wonder what would happen if I used a peeled avacado instead of a banana?