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