Scientists Use Sex-Crazed Bugs As Pesticide

ByronScott writes "In today's 'gross news' category, some female insects just might be getting lucky. As an alternative to toxic pesticides, scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have created 'super-sexed' sterilized male leafhoppers to knock bug boots with females in the wild, resulting in decreased populations. Yes, that means that the female bugs will miss out on the joys of motherhood, but the idea that the insects will be having some fun instead of being gassed to death by poisons is pretty cool."

Cool !

[gr8_phk]

Wait 'til somehow one slips in with the super-sexed modification but not the sterilization.

Re:Cool !

[Sir_Lewk]

Nature... finds a way.

Re:QFTS

[Eric Smith]

In some cases, probably a lot worse than the first time you did it. horrific beetle sex [scienceblogs.com]

Re:Free as in beer?

[Anonymous Coward]

Assuming you're married or have a girlfriend, you would know that you pay. Maybe not in dollars in cents, but you pay...

FAIL

[Hurricane78]

The bug will not only have sex with one, but many male bugs. And one of them will have working sperm. Done.

Maybe making the females sterile would make a bit more sense. ^^

For database designers: It’s a one-to-many relationship.

Re:Cool !

[Foobar of Borg]

Nature... finds a way.

No, a lot of times it really doesn't [wikipedia.org].

What scienists say

[istartedi]

What scientists say: (insert abstract followed by lengthy, scholarly work which includes some mention of sex).

What journalists hear: SEX, SEX,SEX,SEX,SEX,SEX,SEX,SEX... Oh, BTW SEX!

The preceding was an homage to Gary Larson [google.com] author of The Far Side.

E-birth control?

[fragMasterFlash]

How many unwanted pregnancies could be prevented if Ecstasy tablets included a dose of birth control hormones? Club kids would make wonderful lab rats.