Teachers......

[Tom W.]

Part of my wife's curriculum is to grow genetically modified bugs that eat cotton. After the kids see all that from eggs to larvae to bugs the teachers have to put the bugs and whatever is left into ziplock bags, take them home and put the creatures in the freezer to kill them. The teacher across the hall from her took his home and his son has a pet Black Widow spider. Soooo he decided to feed a few GM bugs to the Black Widow, and they killed it. Ain't no telling what is in their system.... They aren't boll weevils or anything even close, they evolve to a red and black beetle that's about as big as a normal persons thumb nail. I put Lori's bugs into the freezer Monday. I'll take them out next Tuesday night and deposit them into the garbage can as the trash truck comes early Wednesday.

It makes me wonder what happens to the bugs if some teachers don't follow instructions and just release them?

[bob208]

I think I would be taking them some where to find out what they are. then I would want to know why such a dangerous item is in the hands of untrained people.

[frkelly74]

What a good plot for a Movie they got there. Burn them up!!!

[MUSTANG]

Why would we (the Human Race) want to create and expand a Bug that eats cotton? We spent billions and decades too eradicate/control the Boll Weevil; now we need a replacement of a pest to damage cotton?

I can't sing the song "I never Picked Cotton" cause when I was a small Kid EVERONE in the extended families fell out to drag long cotton collecting bags through the field "Picking Cotton".

[MaryB]

No cotton on MN but I grew up using one of these a lot... and a hand cranked feed mill...

http://catherinescorner.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/IMG_3824-952x1024.jpg

[Tracy]

Pet Black Widow?!! :shock:

[frkelly74]

And the GMO bugs poisoned it???!!!

[Tom W.]

That's what he said. The creatures are sent to the school on base. I know that this is the second year for them. In the instructions there are strict warnings about not letting the bugs get away or to turn them loose. The eggs look like tiny pieces of pepper, and we embed them on to a ball of processed cotton. After they hatch and get some size the larvae are put into a clear plastic shoe box with a lid and fed with some kind of a meal. We then transfer them to small plastic vials that have a piece of paper towel that is wetted a bit to keep them from dehydrating. The next step is to see the larvae form a cocoon. When they hatch they sorta look like stink bugs but are black and red. It's a lot of work for kids that don't really care, and even more so for bugs that one is just going to freeze to death.

[lefty o]

thats just another environmental disaster waiting to happen. instructions to make sure they dont get loose, well that already failed.

[Tom W.]

Not from our house........

[Three44s]

This is crazy! What entity creates the largest and most numerous environmental disasters?

THE GOVERNMENT!

And this is a doozy looking for a place to happen. First off nobody should be working with such a creature, period. Second you don’t entrust the kiddies to dispose of them!

This would be so like the left to dream up such a stupid way to sand bag the science of genetic modification by creating a true “man made disaster” to throw the whole industry under the bus so as to facilitate their own political ends.

Disgusting!

Three44s

[Tom W.]

The kiddies aren't entrusted to dispose of them, the teachers are.......You gotta pay attention to what was posted..

[MrWolf]

Think he did. Government created a mutated beetle that has no practical reason to exist except to destroy cotton. Not only that, they place this creation in an environment with very lax protocols. Here, destroy this dangerous creation by putting it in the freezer. Everybody is on the honor system on this. So no giving it to a pet spider, putting it in a freezer that if power goes out may not kill them all without the person realizing, some escape in an uncontrolled environment (a kids classroom), a larvae escapes onto a piece of kids clothing, etc. Think I saw the large version of this picture called Jurassic Park. Your wife may be the most meticulous person adhering to all the protocols but what about the others?

[Tom W.]

Maybe thee Government will send the eggs to Egypt or somewhere so we will have the only cotton crop in the world. Tinfoil hat time!

[frkelly74]

the plot thickens.... Where is Malcom ?

[drizler]

Who says the educators in our education system being the all seeing all powerful beings they are have a lick of common sense[emoji2955]. This fits right in with my lifelong contempt for the highly extremely educated running anything. Sometimes you wonder if a lot of these educational types have enough common sense to get through the day and then they go on pass it on to the kids, priceless. The idiot that dream this little science project up Ought to be tossed in the slammer.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[lefty o]

The kiddies aren't entrusted to dispose of them, the teachers are.......You gotta pay attention to what was posted..

something like this probably shouldnt exist to start with, much less in a school, however they sure as heck shouldnt leave the building, ie destroy them where they are, dont drag em all over tarnation.

[Tom W.]

I thought so, too, but She has to follow protocol.

Of course, I have always thought it was a stupid plan never to fail anyone either, no matter how terrible they were. Or ARE. My youngest son failed 2nd grade some years ago, but graduated in the top 10 of his class when he did. Then on to The University of Alabama where he did extremely well, got his degree and went to work in a paper mill for $20 an hour to start because there were no business openings that were even close to what he could make there....But my wife can't fail anyone without a ream pf papers and several staff meetings, including the parents. If they say no, it's all a moot point.

[waksupi]

When you take them out of the freezer, I would put them in a jar for a couple days in a warm place, to see if any survived the cold. It supposedly take 2-3 weeks of minus 30 to kill the pine beetles up here. You wouldn't want to be responsible for those getting loose.

[flyingmonkey35]

I wonder if RAID will kill them?

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[tunnug]

You can always kill them the organic way- hit them with a hammer or a shoe.

[WheelgunConvert]

Will they consume unprocessed cotton?

[MUSTANG]

After considerable thought; we need to use "Round-Up" on them as a final step; then Monsanto can be sued for failure to kill the bugs.

[wgr]

No cotton on MN but I grew up using one of these a lot... and a hand cranked feed mill...

http://catherinescorner.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/IMG_3824-952x1024.jpg

saw two of them sale today

[Tom W.]

Will they consume unprocessed cotton?
Dunno. We've never let them live that long. After they turn into beetles they are destroyed. I don't even know if the beetles can eat.

[Mr_Sheesh]

Liquid Nitrogen should handle it nicely.

[WheelgunConvert]

No cotton on MN but I grew up using one of these a lot... and a hand cranked feed mill...

http://catherinescorner.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/IMG_3824-952x1024.jpg
What is the glove for?

[mold maker]

I've always found a hammer to be very effective on ticks and crawling bugs. You could then freeze the remains, as per instructions, to take care of the next generation. Fire also seems to work.

[Eamonn]

Wow, this reminds me of Larry Nivens Ringworld where civilization collapsed and imploded because someone developed a mold or something that ate the superconductors they relied on for everything.

This would be illegal over here btw. Look at what happened in Australia, and that was completely natural.

[Gewehr-Guy]

WheelgunConvert, that is a corn husking hook, used to tear through the shuck so you could snap off the ear and throw it into the wagon. Mechanical corn pickers replaced hand picking in the late 40's, but before then millions of acres had to be picked by hand, and probably for something like a dollar a day and room and board. I still have a couple of my Grandfathers.

[pcolapaddler]

You can always kill them the organic way- hit them with a hammer or a shoe.One word.... Fire... not much survives

Sent from an unnamed device running an undisclosed OS via a third party application.

[MaryB]

The glove could also be used to shuck a picked ear. In the 60's grandpa had a little 2 row on the cob in the husk picker. All of the grand kids gathered by the grainery and the adults dumped a wagon load, we shucked and tossed it on the cob into the grain bin for storage...

[WarEagleEd]

The comments below are based on the assumption that the adults would consume cotton.

Why genetically modified to eat cotton? Why not modifiy them to eat kudzu or some equally invasive vegitation?


After the kids see all that from eggs to larvae to bugs the teachers have to put the bugs and whatever is left into ziplock bags, take them home and put the creatures in the freezer to kill them. The teacher across the hall from her took his home and his son has a pet Black Widow spider. Soooo he decided to feed a few GM bugs to the Black Widow

Herein is the flaw in the program (others have mentioned this, too). This program is growing an insect that we don't want establishing itself "in the wild," but there is a serious lack of control/oversight when it comes to the destruction of the GM insects, thereby creating a possible vector for the introduction of this insect into the local environment.

Ed

[Tom W.]

I'm going to guess that someone in Cow College already has a foot in the project. Our Government wouldn't do anything to harm us!

DODEA is in charge of the project, not me.

[rking22]

Are the adults able to reproduce? Are they(hopefully) a single generation c
Hybrid. Or is the state gov really THAT stupid!!!

[Tom W.]

I don't know! All I do is help my wife with the school project.When it's finished I freeze the bugs in her possession and see that they are dead, then dispose of them. Y'all make a big deal out of a second grade project......

[MaryB]

Look at the tree and crop destruction caused by only a few imported pests that do not belong in the USA... it runs in the $billions! THAT is why people are concerned about them getting loose!

[elmacgyver0]

When I was a kid I used to freeze ants and several days later thaw them out and watch them walk away.

[lightman]

My hats off to your Wife as a teacher. They are under paid and under appreciate! I had 90 hours towards a teaching degree when I woke up one morning and realized that I was not cut out for a teacher.

[mold maker]

My Daughter left the profession after 8 years because all she got done was red tape and paperwork. All the teaching was being done by under educated (bus drivers) helpers following State and Fed mandated guidelines.
No wonder our kids are so screwed up.

[dragon813gt]

Look at the tree and crop destruction caused by only a few imported pests that do not belong in the USA... it runs in the $billions! THAT is why people are concerned about them getting loose!

They can attempt to put a number on it but it’s impossible to do. Billions, lots of them, is close to the mark. We have a Spotted Lanternfly infestation where I live and it’s spreading. This was the worse year by far. They were all over and destroyed a lot of grape vines across multiple counties. Don’t know if the wineries will survive. They destroyed a lot more than the grape vines. This is just one species and the spread is increasing as their numbers grow.