Fungal Spores Can Kill Invasive Moths From Miles Away

The United States is plagued with a variety of different insect pests. One of the most damaging of all insect pests in America is the gypsy moth caterpillar. These caterpillars get around more than your average insect pests, as they destroy a number of different and important plants. For example, these caterpillars damage numerous forest trees, including oak and aspen trees. In some regions of the US, gypsy moth caterpillars have successfully destroyed entire regions of forestland.

In 2016 gypsy moth caterpillars destroyed the leaves of every tree within a three hundred and fifty thousand acre region of forestland in Massachusetts. These caterpillars also destroy plant life on people’s property as well as numerous orchards. Control methods are difficult to apply to these invasive caterpillars since they are so numerous. Also, once these caterpillars become active in areas with prominent vegetation, there is no chance of saving the afflicted plants. Luckily, recent research has found that a particular fungal spore can destroy gypsy moth caterpillars.

The particular fungal pathogen, officially referred to as Entomophaga maimaiga, was found in New England in 1989. In a stroke of good luck, researchers discovered that these spores only kill gypsy moths and their caterpillars; all other forms of life seem undisturbed by the presence of these spores, and the large clouds that they create.

Once a gypsy moth caterpillar crawls over one of these spores, the spores release enzymes that create a hole in the caterpillars body. The enzymes will then enter the body through the hole and infest the caterpillar, eventually killing them. The caterpillars are unaware of their impending death, which occurs six days after becoming infected by the spores. Once the host caterpillar is killed by the spore’s enzyme, new spores will spring from the caterpillars dead body. These new spores then become windborne. These windborne spores can infect all other gypsy moth caterpillars in a nearby area. In fact, these windborne spores can travel as far as forty miles to infect other populations of gypsy moth caterpillars.

Do you think that it would be safe to release large amounts of these spores over large regions of forestland in order to prevent gypsy moth caterpillar-related damage to plant life?