Insect Cadavers

Move over Boris Karloff, there’s a new breed of “mummy” in town. In something that sounds like it came from and old horror movie script thousands upon thousands of taped and bound insect cadavers are bringing down prey many times their own size. Don’t worry though, these little “undead” powerhouses don’t go after people, plants, or pets, they only feast on the larval stages of Japanese beetles, vine weevils, root borers, and other crop destroying insect pests. What are they? These insect cadavers are actually hosts to the very small elite group of insect killing nematodes whose “dinner preference” has made them good choices for biological pesticides. Without going into all the gory details, the nematodes use their cadaver insect hosts as incubators to breed new generations of juvenile nematodes who are born hungry. Scientists have found that the easiest way to transport these nematode infected insect cadavers from lab controlled containers to the actual pest infested fields was to sandwich them between two strands of masking tape; thus the “miniature mummies” are formed. Once again nature proves that while it may not always be “pretty”, it is pretty amazing!