An investigative study of Calamansi fruit used as an organic termite terminator

Calamansi being part of the citrus family had high possibility that it may contain limonene, a chemical that was proven to kill termites. Calamasi was also organic and was safe for the environment. It was also cheap in tropical countries like Philippines.
To test its efficacy, two set-ups were made. The first one was a laboratory set-up. The objective of this set-up was to know if calamansi juice can kill termites and also to know the changes of its efficiency in killing termites if the juice will be added with water. The second one was a field setup. The objective was to know the efficacy of calamansi juice against termites while having barriers such as its mound and chambers. Setup two was to be executed only if setup one had proven that calamansi juice really kill termites.
In the first setup, factors such as the number of termites, weight, dimension and volume of soil, and time were the dependant variables and were kept under control to only allow the calamansi and water mixture as the independent variables.
Calamasi juice was extracted using a juicer. Three spraying bottles were prepared. The first bottle contained pure calamansi juice, the second bottle contained 75% calamansi juice and 25% water, while the third bottle had 50% calamansi juice and 50% water. Each spraying bottles were tested only on its corresponding observation box. Each observation box had same number of termites and same volume of soil. For every 15 minutes, 10 sprays were applied each on the observation box within one hour and 15 minutes. The boxes were also observed within 15 minutes to observe the effect of pure calamansi and the two mixtures to the termites. This experiment was repeated three times to obtain an accurate result out from the three varying observations.
From the obtained results, a conclusion had been made that calamansi can kill termites. It was also best to use pure calamansi over the two other mixtures. The water somehow increases the duration in killing termites compared to the pure calamansi. Though adding water could make the experiment cheaper, the quality of termicide must not be overlooked thus it was the best to use the pure calamansi since it can kill termites in the least time.
In the second setup, pure calamansi was applied on two different places. The first one was in the board room inside the executive?s office in CIT University where the wall was infested by termites. For three executive days, the wall where the termites built a chamber was sprayed with calamansi. Every day the wall was observed. On the first day, and same as the following days, visible deaths of termites were seen yet the remaining termites manage to rebuild the chamber even on the area where calamansi was sprayed.
The second area for the field setup was on the garden of Engr. Prieto. Two mounds were tested with different termicides. The first mound was tested with two liters pure calamansi everyday for three consecutive days. The second mound was tested with two liters of diluted solignum for three consecutive days. The two mounds were observed every other day since the day of application for four days.
For mound one, obvious death of termites were seen yet they do still able to rebuild their mound. For mound two, obvious deaths of termites were seen and three termites were not able to rebuild their mound. The second mound however needs a barrier covering its parameter to prevent other animals to poisoned with the solignum.
Calamansi therefore can kill termites yet, as observed it was not a repellant against termites as proven by the reconstruction of the mound after a day since application.
To compare the effectivity of calamansi in comparison to the solignium, a cost analysis was made. On it, pure calamansi was computed more costly over the diluted solignium.

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