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Good company.This is why I'm looking up if insect sex hormones can be manipulated by plants.https://t.co/vxPQbk7cBB and learned some moths avoid laying eggs when they smell caterpillar poop.https://t.co/sYohngMANt https://t.co/0S8rg3Vxnr https://t.co/FBnIWAifEs


I found a way to use plants to change human gender, so the idea of extending that into affecting the gender of moths that eat tobacco plants makes sense. The only other option I know of to fight off hornworms is to make the plant scream.https://t.co/SyZEvwPc2i

Oh, I can maybe use Wolbachia?"Many butterfly and moth species also host Wolbachia bacteria, which are able to transform genetic males into reproductive females, as well as cause females to produce young without insemination"https://t.co/xMXxfBj3QZ

I might even be able to do it ala natural cross-contamination via interspecies competition. Tho I can't confirm it for the hornworms that eat tomatoes. https://t.co/NdmJOk9Z2u

"high pH, simple gut structure, and fast transit times that typify caterpillar digestive physiology may prevent microbial colonization. Moreover, host-encoded digestive and detoxification mechanisms likely render microbes unnecessary for [eating]"https://t.co/BqbgbeTlr2

"did not appear to rely on specialized gut bacteria for digestion, detoxification, biomass accumulation and metamorphosis. Our experiments thus show that dependence on gut bacteria for growth and survival is not a universal phenomenon across insects."https://t.co/uELkDmzLbc neat

Ever wonder if Fluoxetine and other surprising antifungals leaking into the environment could end up impacting growth of mosquitoes and drive disease.Me neither. https://t.co/9y1DSVuQMT

Oh, to be a tree. Forever manipulating mosquito populations by promoting fungal biofilm production to upregulate disease vectors in order to cull the population of Prairie spreading herbivores. https://t.co/O53GpZGg6w

Thinking about complex regulatory networks of fungal infections in ballooning moth populations driven by multi-year weather patterns tied to stuff like El Niño and cyclic drought/rain impacts on grain.https://t.co/HZ8896KS5W

Could St. Andrew's Ghosts be an anthropomorphic model of what happens if a fungus goes thru and infects orchard fruit (spread by moths at night?), and has secondary effects of stealing people's minds?Lots of funguses can fuck your brain up.https://t.co/45yCsJTH30

What else would trend with this? How would the results feed into each other?"This year the East Coast saw its largest outbreak of gypsy moths since 1981, leading to totally defoliated forests that could even be seen from space." [2016]https://t.co/pyhh32prTr

I hate pantry moths.https://t.co/uoDwGj9uHx

I wonder how long something has to be cold to kill moths. Internet says 4-7 days at 0*, but doesn't get the eggs. Industrial contamination suggests pesticides?! No thanks.https://t.co/M1Y1hiDcpc https://t.co/IiVlWRGcTw


> inspired: spreading crispr via moths"CI is a gene-drive mechanism impacting population structure and causing reproductive isolation, but its molecular mechanism has remained unknown. We show that a Wolbachia deubiquitylating enzyme (DUB) induces CI."https://t.co/PfwdUusd4H https://t.co/R9qzfeg2gm


Looks like there ought to be studies on meal moths given I found one measuring rates on clothes moths. https://t.co/W4uQ30IpAt

So one answer is to only eat corn filled with Bt-11 Cry1Ab δ-endotoxin"These results indicate that MON 810 and Bt-11 Cry1Ab δ-endotoxin-containing kernels reduce laboratory populations of Indian meal moth and Angoumois grain moth." https://t.co/pWH3DS1s4d

Apparently that BT-11 stuff is derived from a soil bacteria Bacillus Thuringiensis, which can parasitize certain moths and is involved in sporulation. https://t.co/E39y3C0V0e

brb, learning how to engineer tobacco plants to produce pesticides to fight horn worm https://t.co/hV0NAm9w3k https://t.co/P9oIPa4CUP


Do tomato plants scream in pain when their leaves are being eaten? Does this attract parasitic wasps? Does the chemical signals released by hornworms cause them to feel pleasure instead?https://t.co/kq3PXkLhwLDo you wonder about wire-heading plants?https://t.co/kkds7Xmlr4

Oh why hello there."Our findings confirmed that plant polysaccharides modulate biofilm formation and insecticidal activities of Bt strains and built a foundation for the construction of biofilm-type Bt biopesticides."https://t.co/xMyzKxFocO

Are bacteria making nanoparticles with biofilms due to surface adhesion and drying properties? Wild.https://t.co/yww1U5SX7H

BRB, figuring out how to use snails to clean fermentation vessels.https://t.co/JZUC5r0uSu

If Bacillus Thuringiensis are making crystalline structures as part of their sporulation process, does that mean that there are bacterial snowflake boogers floating around in the sky? https://t.co/muAfsjBIEi

Now, I'm not saying it's silly to insert bacterial dna into plants, but have you considered we could improve soil properties to encourage polysaccharide production and development of natural 'skin microbiota' of plants to make them pest resistant instead?https://t.co/zVc8j64thF https://t.co/OpuQwzn03N


I mean... You're Welcome."I killed an eel, I buried its gutsSprouted a tree, now you got coconutsWhat's the lesson? What is the takeaway?Don't mess with Maui when he's on a breakaway" 🎶https://t.co/njFJdOn6Tfhttps://t.co/KJvG6MKbdd

Plant growth M(yth)emes.Summoning some nice sprites and sprinkling a foul smelling kombucha on the soil to banish the evil spirits."for I am just like you, you don't need to hide my friend."https://t.co/fIOjfUjB7thttps://t.co/LNLBJJzk9P

Zoa taste of bile. Thank you @TheRock."feeding ChB improved gut immunity, as reflected by increasing the abundance of IL-10 , FXR and mucin2 transcript, while downregulated expression of TLR4 , MyD88 , NF-κBp65 and TNF-α genes in the intestinal mucosa."https://t.co/raRZZbpDPk

Trying to figure out how to boost bile production.https://t.co/Xfpxwn3BCh

Loss of bile production is one of the longer term side effects of drinking lots of alcohol. I wonder if that would work.Looks like he also avoided processed meats and had a low fat selection diet. That would avoid issues from poor bile function. https://t.co/ZJ6XYoU2WP

and fight biofilms."The presence of mucosal biofilms is an endoscopic feature in a subgroup of IBS and ulcerative colitis with disrupted bile acid metabolism and bacterial dysbiosis." https://t.co/9qNJoiVd9n

Malenia, Goddess of Rot"The Purple Emperor is rare among butterflies. It avoids flowers, preferring rotting animal corpses, faeces, mud puddles - and even human sweat."https://t.co/jEWtDahIAChttps://t.co/U4lukyOyhy https://t.co/1aUEVgehuV


"A portrayal of the scene shows the hunky mythological hero kneeling to pat the head of a hound that has just been chewing a snail’s anus"https://t.co/sB99OdoXmIhttps://t.co/vOBYjpvCSu

Lots of great long-plays of this on youtube too if you don't have the patience to play it.https://t.co/vY00kiM3t2