Rhino-Vial is an important part of any insect collection. It’s been around for a while, but it didn’t become widely known until the advent of cell phones and digital cameras. These days, it’s fairly common to see someone walking around with a vial full of insects in their hands, taking photos of them to show friends and family. But what is this magical solution that allows for such quick and easy catch-and-release photography? Well, it’s probably because of the breakthroughs in nanotechnology and biotechnology that allow for the molecular manufacturing of new pesticides.
What is Nanotechnology?
“Nanotechnology” is the use of nanoparticles (i.e., materials having a diameter of less than 100 nanometers) in medicine, electronics, and other industries. Essentially, nanoparticles are very small substances that have unique properties due to their quantum size. Let’s take a trip back in time to a day when cells were much smaller and more delicate. Back then, if you’d gone into a pharmacy and asked for some steroid hormones, the pharmacist would have given you hormone replacement pills made of yeast cells.
These days, nanoparticles are made of highly purified elements, such as gold, silver, or carbon. The exact composition and size of the nanoparticles can be controlled, producing a bespoke product that has a highly specific set of properties. In the case of insecticide-producing nanoparticles, the size, shape, and surface area are all critical to determining the effectiveness of the product as a pesticide. Specifically, large-scale studies have shown that large nano-molecules are more likely to be digested by the environment than small nano-molecules, exhibiting greater toxicities. The same goes for spherical nanoparticles, which are more likely to be digested than non-spherical nanoparticles. It’s not just the size that counts, but the surface area as well!
Nowadays, nanoparticles are used to produce a variety of medications, insecticides, and other products.
How Does it Work?
The basic idea behind both Rhino-Vial and other similar “catch and release” solutions is to produce a toxic chemical that is lethal to the target organism, while also being non-toxic to humans and other animals. So, if you get sprayed with some of this stuff by accident, you won’t die! Most likely, you’ll end up in the hospital, with the doctors wondering what kind of toxic chemical you were exposed to.
These chemicals are called “neurotoxins” because they affect the physiology of the nervous system of the targeted species. Since pests are often times considered to be a nuisance rather than a grave medical threat, the idea behind these neurotoxins is to subdue the pests with a single, quick spray – and then release them back into the wild once the harmful effects of the toxin wear off. This way, they don’t have to be destroyed or captured individually, which is both costly and dangerous to both the animal and the environment.
So how does this solution work specifically with respect to insects? Well, the neurotoxins that are produced by bacteria are typically specific to insects. For example, the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis var. kumamotoensis (B.t. kumamotoensis) produces a neurotoxin called “binotin” that is highly toxic to the moth Scudderia dubia. When ingested by the moth, this toxin quickly disrupts the synaptic connections between the central nervous system and the rest of the insect’s body, effectively paralysing it. In this way, insects that are sprayed with this bacteria eventually collapse and die of starvation, as they cannot feed themselves due to the paralysis.
These days, scientists are working tirelessly to find new and more effective ways to combat insect infestation. And with the development of newer neurotoxins and more advanced nanotechnological methods for their production, it’s likely that we’ll see a lot more “catch and release” products in the near future. What are your thoughts on the subject? Let us know in the comments below!