Better late than never: I promised this post almost three years ago, but it slipped my mind. It will definitely help people who read
Hunting the Elusive Tardigrade. That said, the method is one which has lots of uses, including making a seed shaker. The sky is the limit!
You need a hammer, a chisel, a board to work on, a jar or bottle with a soft (non-brittle) plastic lid and some mesh. Later, you will need scissors.
Put the lid on the board. and use the hammer to drive the chisel through the lid, with the cuts overlapping.
Keep going, and it begins to look like this. By the way, notice the damage done to the board by the chisel.
That might have been the table!
Now the hard work is done.
Get the mesh.
Cut a piece: make it a bit oversize.
Put the lid-ring back on.
And if you must, trim the corners off.
This is the sort of idea which is widely adaptable. If you wanted, you could even use a jar like this to culture mosquitoes. I'll get onto that one, some time soon.
My comment/question seems to have been eaten by the ether. When making a fine filter to look at tardigrades will a cheese cloth be fine enough? - I don't have any silk blouses to cut up- or where do I find 40 micron mesh?
ReplyDeleteI am a science teacher in Sydney and excited to look for tardigrades with my students (and also with my daughters) - it looks like a brilliant project!
Thank you for a most enjoyable blog.
Bruce
The ideal and recommended size is 40 microns, but a coarser mesh will catch some of the bigger ones. As another Sydney science teacher, I wish you luck with it.
ReplyDeleteFYI, my email is my two names with no gaps, and my ISP is ozemail.com.au if you want more, or I'm in the phone book.