The wax moth is very destructive and can destroy beehives and entire bee colonies. The moths lay their eggs inside the hive and then the larvae that hatch create tunnels through the honeycombs that contain honeybee larva and their honey stores. These tunnels they build result in massive destruction of the combs and are lined with silk, which entangles and starves emerging bees. When the moth larvae eat cell caps, honey is wasted as it leaks out.
Scientists decided to steer the wax moths, also known as Galleria mellonella and Honeycomb Moth, in another direction when they discovered the larvae chowing down on plastic in 2017. The worms digest the polyethylene perfectly, and that’s because honeycomb wax, which they usually eat, has many similar compounds to plastic.
The scientists, Christopher Howe and Paolo Bombelli decided to study the larvae and took some to the lab. They placed the larvae on polyethylene film and watched the critters eating away at the plastic. The results, published in Current Biology, showed that in 12 hours, 100 worms consumed 92 milligrams of the material. Interestingly, when the larvae digest the plastic, it converts the material into energy.
The study’s authors wrote:
The answer may lie in the ecology of the wax worm itself. They feed on beeswax, and their natural niche is the honeycomb; the moth lays its eggs inside the beehive, where the worms grow to the pupa stage eating beeswax.
The larvae have adapted the ability to break plastic down because beeswax is comprised of “a highly diverse mixture of lipid compounds,” which are similar in their chemical makeup to polyethylene. The team hopes they can analyze and recreate this breakdown process as a “biotechnological solution to managing polyethylene waste.”
The scientists note that moth larvae can help offer a solution, but alone they are not the answer. It takes about 60 hungry larvae to eat a piece of plastic the size of a matchbook.
However, if scientists can figure out what makes these larvae and their gut bacteria thrive, they could potentially create tools or machines that mirror the way these species demolish plastic. “A better understanding of how this synergy works may guide future efforts to design the ‘perfect’ plastic biodegradation system,” the authors added.
That goal is still far from complete, but if scientists could figure out how these little guys digest, at the end of the day, they might save the world.
