REMEMBER THE SOUTH AMERICAN KILLER BEES?

Well here come the coked out caterpillars.

This by Dan Molinski of the AP by way of Yahoo:

A group of Colombian scientists believe they've found a way to wipe out cocaine production: unleash an army of hungry moth caterpillars. But critics of the proposal say the chance for "ecological mischief" is high.

The plan envisions breeding thousands of beige-colored Eloria Noyesi moths in laboratories, packing them into boxes and releasing them into steamy coca-growing regions of Colombia, the world's main supplier of the drug. The moths, about twice the size of a fly, are native only to the Andean region of South America.

Colombian Environment Minister Sandra Suarez told The Associated Press that the government considers the proposal an "interesting alternative" to existing eradication methods.

Carlos Alberto Gomez, president of the privately funded National Network of Botanical Gardens, made the proposal last week. He said the moths would naturally make a beeline for the coca plants and lay their eggs on the leaves. About a week later, caterpillars would emerge and destroy the plants by devouring the leaves.

Each moth could lay eggs on more than a hundred plants in one month, said Gonzalo Andrade, a biology professor with Colombia's Universidad Nacional, who has been working with the botanical garden group. He called it a natural solution to eradication.

"It would be like fumigating the crops with moths," Andrade said.

But the idea has already drawn criticism.

Ricardo Vargas, director of the Colombian environmental group Andean Action, contended that while the moths may be native to this region, there's nothing natural about releasing thousands of them into small areas. The tropics have the world's most diverse plant life, he said, so the moths would likely threaten other plants as well.

"With a plan like this, the chance for ecological mischief is very high and very dangerous," Vargas said.

Full story here.

I think they can do this without environmental investigations and reports and approval.

It’s halfway fun to think of possible consequences.

Coke-powered caterpillars threatening the world.

The threat moving north. And moving, and moving, and moving.

“Gladys, They're comin’ this way. They reached the Jones farm, two miles down the road.”

“My goodness. Should we pack up and get out of here?”

“I think we’ve got a bit. Junior’s startin’ college. When he finishes, we’ll see where they are.”

And the monster movies would have a literally creepy adversary.

Okay. Enough of that. It might cause a real problem and then it wouldn’t be funny.

Time will tell.