Cryptic crossword No 3,499

Hi Ozpiper, may not get to finish this for a while but thought I should mention there seems to be an extra s in the fodder in 4d. Maybe ‘…ensnares germ’?

All done! Lovely theme, really thoroughly worked into clues and solutions. And some great individual clues - I particularly liked 6a, 23a! 24a, 2d (after initially plonking for ‘unit’!), 8d, 10d, 17d, & 22d. Thanks for the inspiration! Just a few bits of ‘gravity’…