The Gypsy moth is one of the most obnoxious pest in the US today , capable of decimate whole forests . So of course the government want them wipe out . But so potent is the virus they expend to master them that it makes them self-destructive and melts their insides .
The computer virus is know as baculovirus , and it ’s wicked stuff . When exposed to the virus , the Gypsy moth caterpillars get down to behave unpredictably , rise up to a mellow part of the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree they live in , and eventually die . It does n’t stop there though . The virus break their body down from the inside out , evaporate their organs down until there ’s nothing left but caterpillar goop . Brutal .
But that ’s not the vicious genius of the baculovirus , and why it ’s so attractive to officials who need the pest dead and die . The virus in reality controls this behavior on a genetic grade in social club to propagate itself . By trigger the caterpillar ’s gene responsible for for molting demeanor , it convert the brute to creep luxuriously up in a tree diagram and block up eating . Once it die , the fade remains drip down onto the leaves below for other caterpillar to corrode , finally infecting the whole universe . It ’s like an honest to good zombie flick , but with bugs .
consider the scourge the moth continue to pose , I speculate the end justifies the means . But Christ , could n’t it be just a fiddling less grisly ? [ NPR ]
Photo Credit : AP Photo / Mel Evans
chastening : Baculovirus . No . This has nothing to do with Scott Bakula . Thanks cat .
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