A Brandon University master’s student from Gilbert Plains received a large grant to research a moth that eats plastic bags.

Harald Grove received 17, 500 dollars to continue his research.

He explains what the funding is going towards.

“I want to look at the Waxworm in terms of its ability to eat plastic. I don’t know if anyone is familiar, Waxworms came out in the news recently a year ago and they found that these little insects will chew through plastic bags. So what I want to know is how that process occurs. So, through the past year we’ve been looking at what genes are being expressed in the Waxworm associated with it’s ability to eat plastic.”

Funding is coming through the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada grant called the Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship-Master’s Award.

He explains the grant he received.

“The NSERC grant, it’s a council in Canada that helps researchers in certain institutions do their research and fund their research. In terms of a master’s level, I applied for it with a lot of help from my supervisor, who helped me, guided me through the process. So I had to explain, basically what I was going to be doing with my research and how I would be using the money to  continue my research.”

Greater wax moths are also valuable in research because they are often used as a stand-in for mammals in the study of microbial infections.