Physician Wasp?

Job 36:5: "Behold, God is mighty, but despises no one; He is mighty in strength of understanding."

On previous "Creation Moments" programs we've talked about wasps that control crop pests. Natural controls – such as these wasps – show the Creator's hand in designing the creation. New facts about how wasps control pests make our Creator's hand even more evident.

There are several thousand species of wasps that lay their eggs inside crop pests or use the pests for food. These wasps have become a popular form of natural pest control among farmers and gardeners.

Researchers have now discovered that the wasps do more than simply feed on the pests or use them as food for their young. Typically, the wasps will inject their eggs into worm-like pest larvae. It has been discovered that the wasp eggs are coated with a virus that holds the pest larvae in the immature stage until the developing young wasps have no more need of the egg. The virus appears to move to an organ inside the pest larva and affects the insect's immune system. It also acts on the larva's endocrine system to take away the larva's appetite. So the pest larva destroys less crop, and being starved for food, fails to develop into an adult. This gives the wasp eggs plenty of time to develop into young wasps who will finish off the pest.

Researchers are still trying to discover exactly how the virus's carefully orchestrated attack strategy works. However, clearly no creature, nor the creation itself, invented this strategy. It could only have been conceived and built by a Master Biochemist and Physician!

Prayer: I thank You, Lord, that You have built into Your creation natural ways to control creatures that can become unwanted pests. Help us to learn more about the natural controls You have made so that we will be better able to feed a growing population. And with that food, let Your people bring others Your saving Word. Amen.

Notes: Raloff, Janet. 1985. "Virus allows wasps to kill crop pests." Science News, v. 128. p. 22.

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