Insect Tranquilizing Chamber With Baking Soda

Sometimes experimenting with insects can be tricky because many of them possess wings or they move really fast. To solve this problem you can use this tranquilizing chamber to calm them down without killing them.

• Baking Soda
• Vinegar (or any acid)
• Styrofoam
• A cup (or a container of your choice)

Make sure you choose a container that does not let any air out

Insects are sturdy creatures. Most of them can survive without oxygen for a surprisingly long time, and this is how this chamber works! The chamber displaces all of the oxygen, which puts insects in a sleep-like state(do not leave them there for too long or they will never wake up!), and it does so with the following reaction:

Na2CO3(Baking Soda) + 2HC2H3O2(vinegar) -> 2NaC2H3O2 + H2O + CO2 One of the products is carbon dioxide in gaseous form, if you produce enough of it to fill the chamber, there will be no oxygen left. You can actually calculate how much vinegar and baking soda you will need if you have a scale and you know the volume of the container, but adding a lot of vinegar and baking soda works too.

This will be our cork that lets air in

Be careful!

Make sure there are holes and spaces for gas to reach the top of cup from the bottom of the cup

Preferably for a few minutes, but not for too long or they will die!

If you do not add enough baking soda and vinegar to replace air in the cup with CO2, it is not going to work. It took me a few times to find the right amount to make Pipa fall asleep. In the image above, she tried to fly away, but tranquilized, she got stuck in that awkward position with the wing half-opened(she is fine now). If you want calculations for how much vinegar and baking soda you need, I can add this here too.