Behold! A Mushroom That Attacks Pests

By James Donahue

Mushroom King Paul Stamets appears to have produced a form of fungus that may soon rival the pesticide industry. That’s because it attacks crop-damaging bugs without harming the environment.

Stamets, a world renowned mycologist, seems to find varieties of mushrooms that clean up most of the poisons we humans are constantly pouring into the soil and waters of the Earth.

Back when British Petroleum’s Deepwater Horizon crude oil rig exploded and spread raw crude oil all along the Gulf Coast, Stamets produced a form of fungus that lives on crude oil. The problem was that the fungal remedy to that mess was going to take years to fix and people along the coast didn’t want to wait that long.

Now with the problem of farm pesticides raising havoc with our food, the soil and water supply, Stamets has patented an alternative to pesticides laced with toxic chemicals. He has patented a new type of pesticide that utilizes something called an entomopathogenic fungi. This is a special fungi that attracts insects. The bugs feed on the fungi, which in turn takes over their bodies.

Stamets claims that his new "Smart Pesticide" offers a permanent solution for controlling over 200,000 species of insects without harming the crops, the land or the water.

If Stamets succeeds in producing and marketing his new form of pesticide, it will be good news for health conscious people concerned about the damaging effects of genetically modified foods and the effects of farm chemicals used for controlling insects and weeds on large farming operations.

There has been a growing demand for community gardens now growing where green grass once was found, and people are flocking to local farmers markets where they are buying organic home grown produce rather than risk buying their food in major grocery chains.

Thanks to the research being done by Stamets with his amazing varieties of mushrooms, the quest for healthy foods may have been at least partially solved.