Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff Lauren voglebom here. Poisoning various things in nature
Speaker 1: is big business. In the year the last time that
Speaker 1: the United States Environmental Protection Agency published a report on
Speaker 1: the subject, chemical pesticide sales in the US amounted to
Speaker 1: nearly fourteen billion dollars. That's around one point one billion
Speaker 1: pounds or or half a billion kilos of chemicals like chlorine, formaldehyde,
Speaker 1: and arsenic pumped into the landscape in a single year.
Speaker 1: But let's face it, we wouldn't have as robust and
Speaker 1: agricultural system if it weren't for pesticides killing unwanted critters.
Speaker 1: But let's also face it, synthetic pesticides don't just affect
Speaker 1: the targeted organisms. Our heavy insecticide use isn't doing humans
Speaker 1: are pollinators, or our wildlife neighbors any favors either. But
Speaker 1: imagine a pesticide that could fend off unwanted insects while
Speaker 1: believing everybody else alone. It is possible. The technology exists,
Speaker 1: but it requires approval by the e p A and
Speaker 1: that we become okay with the idea of weaponizing parasitic
Speaker 1: fungi to feed on the innerds of insects for our
Speaker 1: own agricultural gain. Let me explain much of the promising
Speaker 1: new research centers around fungi that kill or disable insects.
Speaker 1: They're part of a category of pesticides called biopesticides because
Speaker 1: they work thanks to biologically occurring substances, including chemicals, microorganisms
Speaker 1: like fungi, and substances made by genetically engineered plants. But
Speaker 1: the fungal pesticides are of particular interest because while some
Speaker 1: biopesticides merely fend off pests or screw up their mating cycles,
Speaker 1: these fungus based ones take no prisoners. Mycologist Paul Statements
Speaker 1: has patented to fungus based insecticides, one that's targeted towards
Speaker 1: fire ants, carpenter ants, and termites and other bot a
Speaker 1: more general audience of around two hundred thousand insects species.
Speaker 1: These pesticides seem delicious enough to lower insects to them,
Speaker 1: and once the bugs have eaten them, the fungi sporelates
Speaker 1: and sprouts inside them, feeding on their internal tissue until
Speaker 1: they die and a tiny mushroom sprouts from their heads,
Speaker 1: which is how you know it worked. Fungi are living things,
Speaker 1: just like insects, are capable of evolving and adapting. Many
Speaker 1: synthetic pesticides have lost efficacy over the years because the
Speaker 1: target insects have evolved a built up tolerance to them.
Speaker 1: The ones that were killed off by the pesticide, after all,
Speaker 1: have bless of a chance to breed and pass their
Speaker 1: susceptible genes onto the next generation. But like any other
Speaker 1: relationship between parasite and host, predator and prey, the fungus
Speaker 1: based biopesticides have the ability to evolve right along with
Speaker 1: any adaptation that the insects might come up with to
Speaker 1: hinder them. They're also non toxic to humans and other wildlife,
Speaker 1: including bees and other good poll naters, which have really
Speaker 1: taken the brunt of our love affair with chemical pesticides
Speaker 1: over the years. Some of the downsides of fungal pesticides
Speaker 1: are price and finickiness. They could easily cost farmers twenty
Speaker 1: times more than what they're used to paying for pesticides,
Speaker 1: and like other living things, they are sensitive to environmental
Speaker 1: conditions like temperature and humidity. Hopefully that cost would come
Speaker 1: down with further research and adoption, and wouldn't it all
Speaker 1: be worth it? If we could find a way to
Speaker 1: protect our crops without endangering ourselves. Today's episode is based
Speaker 1: on the article Fungus based pesticides Maybe the Green solution
Speaker 1: of the Future on houstaf works dot com, written by
Speaker 1: Jesslin Shields. Brain Stuff is production of I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: in partnership with houstuf works dot com, and it's produced
Speaker 1: by Kyler Klain. Four more podcasts from my heart Radio.
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