[ExI] super soldier ants

[spike]

-----Original Message-----
From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org
[mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Anders Sandberg
Sent: Sunday, January 08, 2012 3:00 PM
To: ExI chat list
Subject: Re: [ExI] super soldier ants

>...I wonder whether applying methoprene, the analog to juvenile hormone
used to induce soldiers, works in the field. 

Hmmm, no I actually meant collecting a bunch of ant larvae under conditions
where we know their exact age, give them the hormone to create the super
soldiers in the lab, struggle mightily to make sure some drunken fool
doesn't let the super ants loose in your office, then take them into the
field mixed with loam and scatter the soldier ants on the fields with a
manure spreader or with a blower.

>...I suspect finding the right slug-loving nematode worms is likely a
better, if yucky, solution.  -- Anders Sandberg

Ja, I don't care about yucky, I only care about expense and avoiding
damaging that good topsoil.  This is a general problem with the high-protein
crops: slugs and other beasts wish to devour them.  We need something that
will devour those beasts first.

Profit margins are slim and getting more so.  If we can find a better,
cheaper way to rid the oilseed fields of slugs, we can make a cubic buttload
of money. 

spike