Moths may curb cocaine
output menace
By Basil Okafor
Monday, June 20, 2005
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“See
your mouth like recharge card – every time, ‘mummy,
I wan’ to recharge my stomach-mummy I wan’
to recharge my stomach’, haven’t you heard
of the ban on foreign goods? This your fat stomach will
soon join the list of banned items!” By Adaorah
Onele |
|
Thousands of hungry moths may hold the key to eradicating
cocaine production, Colombian scientists have said, but critics
say the idea could open the way for “ecological mischief.”
The researchers’ plan involves breeding Eloria Noyesi
moths in laboratories, then packing them up and dispatching
them to the coca-producing areas of Colombia.
Once there, the moths, native to the Andean region of South
America, would leap straight onto the nearest coca plant and
lay their eggs on their leaves.
A week or so later, caterpillars would crawl out and eat the
leaves, destroying the plant.
More than 100 eggs could be laid by each moth each month,
Gonzalo Andrade, a biology professor with Colombia’s
Universidad Nacional, said.
He said it could be a natural way to eradicate the coca plants.
“It would be like fumigating the crops with moths,”
he said.
Colombia is the world’s major supplier of cocaine.
The idea has been described by Colombian Environment Minister
Sandra Suarez as an “interesting alternative”
to current methods of combating the cultivation of the plants,
AP news agency reported.
However the plan has already been subject to fierce criticism
from environmental campaigners.
Ricardo Vargas, director of Andean Action, said the moths,
which are about twice the size of an average fly, would threaten
other species of plants if released by their thousands into
the wild.
“With a plan like this, the chance for ecological mischief
is very high and very dangerous,” Vargas said.
Other natural enemies of the coca plant, such as a type of
native fungus, were also suggested for use in the plan.
In 2000, Colombia rejected a U.S. proposal to introduce a
fungus, fusarium oxysporum, into coca-growing regions.
Colombian authorities said they were worried about possible
mutations and negative effects on people and the ecosystem.
Instead, coca crops have been subjected to a massive program
of fumigation for the last five years, funded by the U.S.
government.
But poor farmers simply replant the coca and continue production
as normal.
The scientists said their plan would help prevent this, as
the moths would reproduce and provide a continuing threat
to the cultivation of the plant.–AP
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