The move comes as the New World Screwworm fly larvae continues to cause chaos as it infiltrates the US beef industry, affecting wider wildlife, pets and, in rare cases, humans.
According to scientists, the new batches of male sterilised maggots will be dumped over the South American nation and the US state of Texas in a bid to eradicate the vicious variety of flesh-eating larvae.
The US Department of Agriculture is said the male flies, which measure slightly larger than the average housefly, will be sterilised with radiation before being released.
The strategy, set out by scientists, will force the female screwworms to breed with the newly sterilised males.
The flesh-eating variety of the screwworm maggots were eradicated from the US in 1966, but the creatures appear to me making a comeback.
This article also makes this sound like a brand new endeavor, as if this hasn’t been an ongoing project for 70 years now
Well, where they’re dropping them is recent, as the screwworm has been steadily moving north again.
When you are not up to date on the topic, it sounds like a far-fetched dystopian alternate timeline.
Dropping them in texas is alarming, though. The battle was originally to keep them contained in central america near the isthmus. If they’re in texas they can spread widely around the us south, creating yet another reason not to want to be there.
There was an outbreak in Florida in 2016, which was quickly contained. We know how to stop it. They used to be widespread across all of North America
As an anerican my faith in the government stopping this is maybe 20%.
I’m right there with you as far as how our government is functioning on the whole, but everything I see indicates state and federal officials are taking this one seriously. Remember, this threatens the beef and dairy industries, which are not exactly politically passive