Thursday 15 August 2024

Micro-wasps As Moth Control Agents?

The pest company, Rentokil, propose to use tiny ento parasitoid wasps to stop moths reproducing (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/aug/15/minuscule-wasps-enlisted-to-fight-off-moths-in-new-pest-control-strategy). These wasps are only around 0.5mm long. They lay their eggs in the eggs of moths and butterflies, curtailing Lepidopteran reproduction. This 'biocontrol' method is being advocated as an alternative to spraying with toxic insecticides. It would, presumably, only be applicable to locations like museums, with damaging moth infections. Putting parasitoid wasps into people's homes, to deal with clothes moths is unlikely to be commercially viable. 'Biocontrol' technologies have often turned out to have unpredicted negative consequences? One obvious downside, would be the wasps 'escaping' and further damaging populations of inoffensive, already endangered butterflies.

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