Experimentation Spreadsheet Instructions

I was inspired to create a spreadsheet to help with all things mathematical with regards to pheromones quite early on, who wants to be fiddling around with numbers when you could be out “field testing” after all.

My initial interest quickly died, as I became increasingly content to do things more approximately (a splash of this, a dab of that, etc.). However, I continued to pick away at my original idea as it became something of a pet project and a challenge of sorts.

About a year on and a few incarnations and astronomically silly ideas later, I arrived at the (current) best format, which is hopefully a little bit more user friendly than the last couple.

Which brings me to the point of this manual; I hope to explain everything that I have taken for granted as obvious, as authors and visionaries (!) often do.

Note: The spreadsheet is best viewed at 75% zoom ( Viewà Zoom, then click on 75%). Look for the Keys on the sheets if you get confused about what the colour coding represents.

Part 1: Content Calculator

This page tells you what exactly is in your mixes.

Before we start, it’s very important to note that all values are of the same unit, be that mls or drops. That means you cannot use different droppers for each product, each product must give the same volume. Admittedly, there are inherent inaccuracies even following this procedure, but they are relatively small. If you are looking to just apply strait from bottles, please go to the “Application Calculator” section.

The actual use of this page is quite simple; the only cells you need to put numbers into are those in the “ml ratio” column. Type in the corresponding ratios of products from your favourite mix and watch the sheet come to life with all the information you ever needed. For more precise measurements think of your inputs as mls (e.g 1.5ml of SOE, 0.4 of NPA), but you can use drop ratios. The “Products (%)” column tells you the percentage of each product in the mix. The graph at the bottom of the page illustrates the pheromonal proportions of your mix.

For example, take DD#1.

That’s SOE:NPA @ 7:3

Now just put 7 next to SOE and 3 next to NPA (making sure the other cells in that column are zeroed),

Type the appropriate values in the light grey column next to the products and good ol’ Excel does the rest.

You also get a “Dilutant” function (listed in the “Products Column”), which is basically anything you use in your mix that doesn’t contain pheromones (ethanol, lotion, cologne, etc.), just input how ever many parts (mls or drops) you want and you’re set.

 

Part 2: Dosage Wizard

Here you find out how much you are applying of your mix from the Content Calculator.

Before we start, draw you attention to the orange box in the top left.

The values in the “Volume” column of each application type set the unit volumes for these cells

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is very important that you input the correct numbers here, or there is little point in using the page. The best way to do this is to do a little practical work, find out how many drops your dropper gives with 1ml of this mix, and do the same with sprays (of course you can always guess if you want…). For dabs, use the reference table over to the right (“Dab Volume Index”). At this point I would like to recommend that you only spray low concentration and more volatile (watery) mixes, you will find that the sheet complains that the mix is “Too viscous” as a reminder. Again, the use of this sheet is very simple, just type in how many drops, dabs or sprays you are applying, and the sheet does it’s magic.

You also get the option to compare two mixes; to do this put your second mix on the “Mix 2” page the same way as with the Content Calculator.

 

Part 3: Application Calculator

This page tells you how much of each pheromone you are wearing when you apply a certain combination of products.

This sheet needs to be calibrated as well, simply fill in the orange box titled “User Defined Application Info.” in the same way as with the Dosage Wizard. This sets the unit volumes for the “Other” column in the “Quantity Applied” section.

The orange box calibrates these cells

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The default columns in the screen shot above represent the default application method for each product. These are quite subjective (I have made NPA and TE dabbing products instead of drop and spray products) and can be changed if you wish. The current default is illustrated next to the product name so you can keep track of things. To change the default volume, change the product’s corresponding value in the “Default Product Application Volumes” section.

To use this sheet, simply input how many drops, dabs or sprays of each product you want to apply in the “Application Method” (pictured above) section.

Note: The sheet adds up all of the values in the “Application Method” section and uses them for the graph, so make sure you have zeroed any unwanted values.