The fall armyworm can pose a major problem for farmers around the world but especially in North America, where it devours crops like corn, rice, and sorghum, Wired reports.
Oxitec, the biotech company that developed the new worms — along with similar mosquitoes in the past — is already running small tests on its pesticide-free approach to crop protection. Oxytec engineered eggs that are so overloaded with certain proteins that they’re blocked from ever developing or hatching, nipping the invasive species’ growth in the bud.
The appeal of Oxitec’s approach is that it kills off pest species in a targeted way without introducing new predators or toxic pesticides into the area. But experts told Wired that, in the absence of a more general approach, a new pest might simply take the armyworm’s place.
“The problem is when you take a .22 rifle approach and what you need is something that will kill off, in a sustainable way, the other pests,” Jaydee Hanson, a policy director at the Center for Food Safety, told Wired.
