Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany, have discovered that certain strains of the fungus *Beauveria bassiana* can effectively combat wood-devouring insects, offering a potential alternative to traditional chemical insecticides. These insects, such as bark beetles, ingest plant chemicals from their diet, which are then metabolized to become more toxic to fungi. However, the identified strains of *B. bassiana* possess genes that allow them to detoxify these plant compounds in a two-phase process, first by weakening them and then by converting them into harmless methylglucosides. This discovery, published in PNAS in 2025, suggests that fungi could be weaponized as a future pest control method, potentially replacing dangerous chemical sprays with biological agents.