A tray holds the corpses of gypsy moth caterpillars treated with Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), a widely used organic insecticide, and Enterobacteria, a microbe that normally lives in the gypsy moth's intestinal tract. Nichole Broderick, a UW-Madison graduate student in entomology and microbiology, is lead author of a study which discovered that Bt kills gypsy moths and other insects only when other native bacteria are already present in the insects' intestines. The finding upends previous beliefs of how Bt functions and has implications for agriculture, forestry and medicine. Image credit: Michael Forster Rothbart Photo date: September 2006

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Nichole Broderick, a UW-Madison graduate student in entomology and microbiology, holds several female gypsy moth caterpillars that are part of her research on Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), a widely used organic insecticide. Broderick is lead author of a research discovery showing that Bt kills gypsy moths and other insects only when other native bacteria are already present in the insects' intestines. The finding upends previous beliefs of how Bt functions and has implications for agriculture, forestry and medicine. Image credit: Michael Forster Rothbart Photo date: September 2006
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