Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

  • http://twitter.com/daveyclayton davey

    lol

  • heligo

    Stuff like this always makes me nervous. Releasing fungal spores into the wild. Can it evolve? Are humans it’s next target? Did I watch too many films as a kid? Tell me, for the love of Jebus, tell me!

    • http://twitter.com/so_cosmic Michael Lin

      Where do you think the fungal spores came from in the first place? The wild. Of course it can evolve, it’s evolving as we speak. Humans are not its next target; we have immune systems that prevent these things from happening to us.

      • fuzzyfuzzyfungus

        The biological pest-control agents that do seem to have… potentially interesting… implications for humans are contraceptive vaccines. 

        The one I’ve heard most about, intended for controlling deer, also testing on some other nuisance mammals, induces an immune response to Gonadotropin-releasing hormone. With the immune system mopping up the GnRH, a variety of reproduction-critical endocrine processes get cratered and infertility results.

        I’m sure that there are a bunch of messy details that would have to be worked out to port this between species; but GnRH is an important player in humans, as in most if not all mammals, so an adaptation of this immunocontraceptive approach would seem to be an interesting avenue for anybody who was interested in a little Children of Men…

        http://www.aphis.usda.gov/publications/wildlife_damage/content/printable_version/faq_gonacon_bc_deer_08.pdf

    • Editz

       Yes, this will be deployed at the entrances to gated communities in short order.

    • oasisob1

      Only those of us foolish enough to try to enter the little plastic trap.

    • http://www.facebook.com/efrodahl Elliott Frodahl

      Well, if it’s similar to or is an Ophiocordyceps fungus, it probably came from the wild, and has evolved to specifically target a single species of insect. These fungi are so highly specialized that some of the ones that live in rainforests cannot live on any ants other than their target species.

  • acerplatanoides

    Had a friend in college who worked with moth trapping for her summer research. And all through the fall moths would follow her around, chasing the residual pheromones on her clothes. She was willowy to begin with, with the moths following her around it was almost magical. 

    • mark

      I like her. My wife has fireflies land in her hand. I like wood faeries. 

  • http://lectiblog.blogspot.com/ lecti

    That is one nasty case of jock itch.

  • Boundegar

    I saw a similar film from BBC and it had so much more gravitas.  Why is it Americans – even National Geographic – can’t even mention moth sex without giggling?  They had to soundtrack it with “smooth jazz,” and you can almost hear the narrator’s eyebrows waggling.  Are we still in middle school?

  • snagglepuss

    “Sexy smells”, “deadly fungus” – ?

    Sounds like some of my earlier dating experiences. Hiyoooh !

  • Chuck

    Hmmm. Is there any chance that the moths would become resistant to the fungi, possibly merge with it, and create a new creature entirely?

    And you don’t suppose, by way of a series of mispronunciations through the ages, that “fungi-carrying moth” could wind up turning into “Fungi of Yuggoth” some time in a future age, do you?

    • Preston Sturges

      Ever seen “Attack Of The Mushroom People?”

    • K-9

      My God.
      .
      Mi god.
      .
      mi-god.
      .
      mi-go

  • Robert

    Lure ‘em to corn and then sell it to Mexico.

    • Antinous / Moderator

      Hmm. When I saw “corn smut”, I was expecting something else entirely. Possibly involving the Jolly Green Giant and “niblets”.

    • blueelm

      As gross as it looks (and yeah, it looks pretty gross) it actually tastes good and is nutritious. 

  • The Grim Snark

    That’s some cock block!