These caterpillars digest in a day which takes centuries to disappear!

Each year, more than 100 million tonnes of polyethylene are produced worldwide. Similarly, This plastic, omnipresent in our bags, packaging and containers, is also one of the most resistant to degradation. Meanwhile, It takes decades, even centuries, so that it decomposes naturally. Moreover, Faced with this major environmental challenge. For example, a team of Canadian researchers offers a solution as unexpected as it is intriguing: using caterpillars to digest it.

A larva against plastic – These caterpillars digest day which

At the University of Brandon, Canada, Dr. Furthermore, Bryan Cassone. Similarly, his team became interested in a well -known insect of beekeepers: the wax worm, or more precisely the caterpillar of the great ringworm of wax (Galleria mellonella). Nevertheless, These larvae are naturally fond of beeswax, which they consume in the hives, to the chagrin of the colonies. Meanwhile, But they have another these caterpillars digest day which talent that could well transform our relationship to waste: they are capable of nibble on plastic. However, and more precisely polyethylene.

The figure impresses: according to the researchers, around 2,000 wax worms can break down a plastic bag in just 24 hours. For example, A feat when you know that this same bag could persist in the environment for hundreds of years.

Chemical digestion or biological miracle? – These caterpillars digest day which

This phenomenon is not entirely new: a first discovery in 2017 had already revealed that these caterpillars could tackle plastic. Moreover, But the new study goes much further. Thanks to a series of analyzes. the Cassone team has shown that wax worms are not content to burn plastic: they really digest it, transforming it into lipids, stored in the form of body fat. In other words, they metabolize plastic, as we do with food fats.

How is it possible? these caterpillars digest day which The key seems to reside in their intestinal microbiota, a bacterial ecosystem that plays a crucial role in this degradation. Researchers are now trying to identify responsible enzymes. biological processes, with the objective of isolate them and reproduce them in the laboratory.

A caterpillar not so invincible

But everything is not so simple. Despite their plastic appetite, wax worms cannot survive for a long time with a diet exclusively composed of polyethylene. In a few days, they lose weight and end up dying. The ingestion of plastic does not provide them with these caterpillars digest day which sufficient energy or essential nutrients to their survival.

To get around this problem. researchers explore the idea of food “co-supplementation”: by adding stimulants as sugars to their diet, it would be possible to keep in good health while letting them consume plastic.

Towards an industrial solution?

This research opens two major avenues for the fight against plastic pollution. The first would be to produce on a large scale wax worms nourished with polyethylene. in a logic of circular economy. But such an approach poses many practical. ethical and ecological questions, especially due to the potential impact on bee populations, already weakened. The wax worms being parasites of the hives, a massive farm could worsen an already worrying situation.

The second way. more promising in the long term, consists in identifying the precise biological mechanisms of degradation and reproducing them without the caterpillars. This would involve insulation these caterpillars digest day which of the enzymes involved, and their use in industrial processes to treat plastic waste. Similar initiatives have already been explored with fungi. bacteria, but they still struggle to be deployed on a large scale.

A potential to confirm

Although the results are spectacular, they should not hide the extent of the challenge. To treat even a fraction of the 100 million tonnes of polyethylene produced each year, billions of caterpillars should be mobilized. A solution based solely on wax worms is therefore far from viable on a large scale.

But this research is nonetheless essential. It helps enrich our understanding of natural mechanisms capable of tackling one of the most polluting materials in the world. And above all, it opens new perspectives for a recycling bio-engineering, more respectful of the environment and potentially very effective.

In other words. if the plastivorous caterpillars alone cannot save the these caterpillars digest day which planet, they may show us the way to radically new solutions.