Plastic-Eating Caterpillar Discovered

[Yossarian]

This sounds extremely promising, though I guess I'd probably be jumping the gun a little if I went down to the bait shop and bought a few handfuls of them to see what they could do.

"I was surprised about the similarity of the chemical structure between wax and the plastic," Bombelli said. "The caterpillar is able to munch through the wax the same way they are able to munch through the polyethylene.… The caterpillar probably doesn't really notice that there is a difference between the wax and the polyethylene."

Accidental discovery reveals caterpillar that eats plastic

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Potentially useful if they could be used to break down plastic waste on an industrial scale, but I expect billions of the caterpillars would be needed to deal with the large amounts of waste that we generate.

 

[editor]

It'll never go hungry then.

 

[Pickman's model]

now all they need to do is teach it to swim

 

[Yossarian]

According to the party-poopers at the Guardian, one big problem would be that the wax moths these bugs grow into can devastate bee colonies, though it may be possible to cut out the middle moth and just use the bacteria in their guts to break down plastic.

Plastic-eating bugs? It’s a great story – but there’s a sting in the tail | Philip Ball

 

[Sprocket.]

The problem is that the wax moth caterpillar primarily preys on honey bee hives. Beekeepers are concerned that a massive growth in numbers of these caterpillars could lead to the total annihilation of hives across the land.

 

[Sprocket.]

According to the party-poopers at the Guardian, one big problem would be that the wax moths these bugs grow into can devastate bee colonies, though it may be possible to cut out the middle moth and just use the bacteria in their guts to break down plastic.

Plastic-eating bugs? It’s a great story – but there’s a sting in the tail | Philip Ball

Beat me to it!

 

[Pickman's model]

#

 

[farmerbarleymow]

According to the party-poopers at the Guardian, one big problem would be that the wax moths these bugs grow into can devastate bee colonies, though it may be possible to cut out the middle moth and just use the bacteria in their guts to break down plastic.

Plastic-eating bugs? It’s a great story – but there’s a sting in the tail | Philip Ball

We could seal them into warehouses to ensure they don't escape - plastic fed in at one end, and dead moths from the other into a compost heap.

 

[Sprocket.]

##

 

[Pickman's model]

We could seal them into warehouses to ensure they don't escape - plastic fed in at one end, and dead moths from the other into a compost heap.

and you in the middle

 

[Sprocket.]

Perhaps we could interest them in old tyres too!

 

[bemused]

According to the party-poopers at the Guardian, one big problem would be that the wax moths these bugs grow into can devastate bee colonies, though it may be possible to cut out the middle moth and just use the bacteria in their guts to break down plastic.

Plastic-eating bugs? It’s a great story – but there’s a sting in the tail | Philip Ball

As a part time beekeeper I can say this is rubbish.

Wax worms which are the larvae of the wax moth do indeed make a mess of combs, but, typically this only happens in weak colonies or comb that have no bees living on them. The problem then is how beekeepers deal with storing empty combs, there are many techniques to stop wax moths destroying them.

Wax moth is a minor pest to beekeepers.

 

[Orang Utan]

Potentially useful if they could be used to break down plastic waste on an industrial scale, but I expect billions of the caterpillars would be needed to deal with the large amounts of waste that we generate.

Aye, introducing a new species to a new environment, could be just another disaster waiting to happen, with a feral population causing more damage than envisaged - like when the Australians brought cane toads in to eat all the beetles that had been destroying their crops, and they ended up eating all the prey of other native species that then went into decline.

 

[JTG]

According to the party-poopers at the Guardian, one big problem would be that the wax moths these bugs grow into can devastate bee colonies, though it may be possible to cut out the middle moth and just use the bacteria in their guts to break down plastic.

Plastic-eating bugs? It’s a great story – but there’s a sting in the tail | Philip Ball

This is serious - the number of spam emails from 38 degrees in my inbox could reach unmanageable proportions