Scientists said that the caterpillars of ordinary wax moths were able to eat polyethylene and other types of plastic, which makes it possible to use them for garbage disposal. The findings of the researchers were published in the journal Current Biology.

As one researcher Federica Bertokini points out, she accidentally discovered caterpillars, taking care of the bees in her garden. In the hives of bees, according to the biologist, in addition to the bees themselves and their parasites, caterpillars of a large wax moth often live, which are not interested in honey or the inhabitants of the colony, but the waxy walls of their honeycombs.

Clearing the beehive of its bees from similar caterpillars, Bertokkini put them in a plastic bag. Later she discovered that the caterpillars started eating polyethylene.

Then, Bertokini continued to monitor the caterpillars in the laboratory and found that they were able to eat polyethylene at an almost record speed - in half a day about a hundred caterpillars ate almost 100 mg of the package, which is thousands of times faster than the decomposition of plastic with bacteria and other insects.