Scientists: Insect Would Kill Coca Crops (link)This is such a very, very bad idea.
By DAN MOLINSKI, Associated Press Writer Thu Jun 9, 2:11 PM ET
BOGOTA,Colombia - A group of Colombian scientists believe they've found a way to wipe out cocaine production: unleash an army of hungry moth caterpillars. But critics of the proposal say the chance for "ecological mischief" is high.
The plan envisions breeding thousands of beige-colored Eloria Noyesi moths in laboratories, packing them into boxes and releasing them into steamy coca-growing regions of Colombia, the world's main supplier of the drug. The moths, about twice the size of a fly, are native only to the Andean region of South America.
Colombian Environment Minister Sandra Suarez told The Associated Press that the government considers the proposal an "interesting alternative" to existing eradication methods.
Carlos Alberto Gomez, president of the privately funded National Network of Botanical Gardens, made the proposal last week. He said the moths would naturally make a beeline for the coca plants and lay their eggs on the leaves. About a week later, caterpillars would emerge and destroy the plants by devouring the leaves.
Each moth could lay eggs on more than a hundred plants in one month, said Gonzalo Andrade, a biology professor with Colombia's Universidad Nacional, who has been working with the botanical garden group. He called it a natural solution to eradication.
"It would be like fumigating the crops with moths," Andrade said.
But the idea has already drawn criticism.
Ricardo Vargas, director of the Colombian environmental group Andean Action, contended that while the moths may be native to this region, there's nothing natural about releasing thousands of them into small areas. The tropics have the world's most diverse plant life, he said, so the moths would likely threaten other plants as well.
"With a plan like this, the chance for ecological mischief is very high and very dangerous," Vargas said.
But hey, disrupting the natural ecological order and destroying the very lifeblood of the cocaleros...er...farmers in the region aside... just think of the billions of dollars we could devote to drug rehab facilities and meth-clinics here in the States instead of flushing it down the Andean drain.
Yea. Something like that.
Posted by Kyer at June 9, 2005 09:41 PM