Just Pinned to Domestic and Global News: The end of plastic landfill? Researchers discover caterpillar that eats plastic; it's called a "wax worm" (Natural News) Plastic-eating caterpillars known as wax worms may one day help reduce the global pollution crisis a study revealed. Prior to the study an amateur beekeeper was cleaningherhives and placed the parasitic wax worms in a plastic bag only to find out that the caterpillars were able to make holes in the plastic. As part of the study a team of researchers from the Cambridge University in the U.K. and the Institute of Biomedicine and Biotechnology of Cantabria in Spain examined 100 wax worms that were let loose on a plastic bag. The research team noted that holes started appearing in the plastic after a 40-minute mark. The study also revealed that the worms consumed as much as 92 mg of plastic after 12 hours. In comparison previous research on bacteria showed that the microbes were only able to eliminate 0.13 mg of plastic in 24 hours. Data from aspectroscopic analysis also showed that chemical bonds present in plastic started to degrade when exposed to the caterpillars.The study also revealed that the insects were able to convert
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