The insect glue, produced from edible oils, was inspired by plants such as sundews that use the strategy to capture their prey. A key advantage of physical pesticides over toxic pesticides is that pests are highly unlikely to evolve resistance, as this would require them to develop much larger and stronger bodies, while bigger beneficial insects, like bees, are not trapped by the drops.

The drops were tested on the western flower thrip, which are known to attack more than 500 species of vegetable, fruit and ornamental crops. More than 60% of the thrips were captured within the two days of the test, and the drops remained sticky for weeks.

Work on the sticky pesticide is continuing, but Dr Thomas Kodger at Wageningen University & Research, in the Netherlands, who is part of the self defence project doing the work, said: “We hope it will have not nearly as disastrous side-effects on the local environment or on accidental poisonings of humans. And the alternatives are much worse, which are potential starvation due to crop loss or the overuse of chemical pesticides, which are a known hazard.”

Link to the study

  • dubyakay
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    13
    ·
    29 days ago

    Carboniferous period. Jurassic was about 100m years later.

    • Hacksaw
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      edit-2
      29 days ago

      It was a wild guess and I was hoping someone smarter than me would correct me ❤️

      In my defense the dinosaurs from Jurassic Park came from wildly different eras so Carboniferous super bugs can still fit in!

      • dubyakay
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        29 days ago

        I just asked ChatGPT because I knew something was off.