Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/07/09/helicopter-to-shower-central-pennsylvania-with-a-thick-brown-liquid.html
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Not a chemical, eh?
I wonder what it’s made from, if not “chemicals”?
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Advertising?
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Bacteria, so lots of chemicals, not a single one like DDT.
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To a first approximation, live germs in water.
Details are proprietary, of course.
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Yeah it’s a suspension of Lysinibacillus sphaericus (gram-positive, mesophilic, rod-shaped soil bacteria for those without the baseball card). …still hope folks who got doused do a thorough immediate wash, as who knows what interesting genetic diversity one might find in a large collection of soil bacteria (which has already worked out defenses against eukaryotes hence their utility) and makes survival in a human sinus cavity initially convenient for them.
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I suspect they mean it’s not a “synthetic chemical”. It’s made from Bacillus thuringiensis bacteria.
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Bt is a commonly used (in its many varieties) organic pesticide, highly targeted and nontoxic. It basically gives the targeted creepy crawlies terminal trots. I congratulate PA for using an organic solution to a bad problem.
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Maybe they’re looking for Hershey PA, which is a little farther north.
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I was going to say - isn’t everything a chemical? Even if it is a natural compound?
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"In The Big Rock York Candy Mountains
You never change your socks
And the little streams of alcohol chocolate milk
Come a-trickling down the rocks
The brakemen helicopter pilots have to tip their hats
And the railroad bulls black fly larvae are blind
There’s a lake of stew Vectobac 12s and of whiskey bacteria, too
You can paddle all around 'em in a big canoe
In The Big Rock York Candy Mountains
One of many sources for the original.
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It’s probably sugar water to keep the bacteria alive, but the legal department won’t want people eating Vectobac.
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Don’t worry folks it’s not a “chemical”, it’s a biological agent. Like anthrax for fly larva. Totally a normal thing to spray around. Please don’t mind us.
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