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.
The article doesn’t mention why this is suddenly an issue. They used to have a narrow choke point around Panama where they did this routinely to keep these things from ever getting into the US, but that was cut as part of the “government efficiency” fiasco, so now it’s a widespread, growing, problem. Really the perfect example of why wildly cutting government spending without thought is not an ‘efficient’ approach to reducing spending.
There is also a picture of a screw-worm infected dog in the article, if you want to see what your republican sponsored future will be
It’s worth noting that the current outbreak that’s occurring north of Panama started prior to DOGE doing its bullshit. Apparently it began in 2022.
Worth noting that people still have no idea how much damage Trump and Republicans did the first go around.
I’m not saying they didn’t do damage, but did they cut funding for this? There doesn’t seem to be any evidence of that. There was an outbreak in Florida in 2016 before the 2022 outbreak
No concrete reason for the northward spread has been given, and Dr. Chancey said it is likely “multifactorial.” She noted that surveillance of NWS is limited in hard-to-reach areas across Central America, and livestock often are transported through unmonitored or insufficient checkpoints.
I’m not talking about who did what.
I’m talking about people who don’t know what damage was done and the extent.
If they knew, and actually cared, things would not be as bad and getting worse.
This is an example of how bad they screwed things up this time!
I meant this is an example of how bad they screwed things up last time!
I meant I am not talking about who did what, but this is an example of what could happen because they screwed things up!
You seem very confused. What is the point of your comment or how do you relate it to my comments?
The first comment was about how DOGE and Trump 47 has caused this and how they used to have it contained at the Panama canal. Second comment states this has not been contained since at least 2022. Third comment, your first, states Trump 45 caused this. Fourth comment has examples from 2016, which is Obama. Then your second comment, fifth in the chain, states it isn’t about what actually was messed up but how they messed it up and how we don’t know the extent, completely changing the subject.
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but that was cut as part of the “government efficiency” fiasco
I hate Elon, Trump, DOGE, and MAGA as much as the next comrade, but I have seen no evidence this is the case. Where did you get this from?
Your comment made me think again at my sources. Re-researching starting with the link from @CaptainPedantic@lemmy.world and eventually through this Atlantic article it seems as though pandemic supply chain issues finally caught up to the fly factory.
But as @evenglow@lemmy.world said, I’d still chalk that up as first term damage, and Trump and DOGE should get screwworms.
But right after it mentions supply chain issues, it talks about unauthorized migration through the Darien Gap and the illegal cattle trade in Central America. Just saying, criticize where it’s due, and Trump’s due criticism for almost everything he’s done, but this problem is complex and exists independently of him and independently of the United States
Protist gives examples from 2016. This isn’t a Trump issue, just a nature / maybe global warming one.
That dog pic is actually a little tame. I’ve seen some nightmare inducing pics of screwworm infections.
“MAGAts for maggots”
I read something different re: the cause.
It’s difficult to say how they made it past the Darien Gap, but there are several possibilities, Earl said. Monitoring and surveillance for screwworm was relaxed due to the COVID-19 pandemic several years ago, and an increase in illegal cattle trafficking in the region might also be helping to spread animals infected with maggots. The increase in human migration northward may also be playing a role, Earl said.
It happened while Biden was president, though. Like 2022|23.
I need to know who to blame, can I get a source?
I don’t know if I’m going mad or the Internet has been scrubbed clean of it, but I can’t find a source anywhere on my 2023 claim, now. It was an article I’d thought I read pretty recently.
There was a fairly recent article posted on Lemmy somewhere saying they had broken through, but I don’t remember it including a “why”
Mexico is not “South American.” Most of it isn’t even “Central American.” The person who wrote this needs some geography lessons.
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
I sent them a message to see if they’d update it. Just out of curiosity.
Update that no one will likely see but I said I messaged them so I figured I’d say the result. They updated the article to replace all instances of South America with North America.
(Message was sent via the authors personal website, as I dont use X) https://www.danielledewolfe.com/
Good for them.
Europe’s understanding of the geography outside its tiny landmass is utterly laughable.
“Tiny landmass”? Tell me you have no idea of geography without telling me you have no idea of geography.
Second smallest continent, behind even Antarctica.
It’s tiny my dude.
I mean let’s be honest, they shouldn’t get to call themselves a continent even.
If you’re talking about that mountain range, sure we can be Eurasia instead then
“Smallest Continent” is like saying “Most Giant Midget.” It means nothing. That’s also only if you use the 7 continent model. Which is taught in Mostly English Speaking parts of the world as well as SE Asia and China. There’s two 6 continent models, the combined Eurasia Model which is taught in Russia, Eastern Europe and the Balkan States. Then There’s the combined Americas model Taught in Greece, many Romance language countries and Latin America. Then There’s The 5 Continent model which is Physiographic Regions, so physically distinct regions independent of Political boundaries and the 4 continent model which is divided by continuous land mass, so Afro-Eurasia, Combined Americas, Australia and Antarctica. The 6 model system is represented in the rings of the Olympic flag that depicts the 5 inhabited continents of the combined America Model but excludes Antarctica because Penguins are shit at Archery. TMYN
This is interesting. I didn’t know there were so many different systems.
This is real 5’11" energy bud.
No, it’s actually just geography.
Europe’sTelodzrum’s understanding of the geographyoutside its tiny landmassis utterly laughable.Sorry, FTFY
Tiny little landmass filled to the brim with vainglorious people.
Rhode Island is tiny, Europe is not
Rhode Island isn’t a landmass. It’s a political division. Europe is large for everything but continents. But it’s a moderately sized peninsula on the Eurasian continent.
Nobody is claiming it’s small like Luxembourg, we’re saying its small like India (yes I know its 3x the size of india)
You consider India small?
For a country it’s huge. For a landmass it’s small.
what make you think I have good understanding of Europe and geography?
Living there and also maps existing.
I’m surprised they’re still doing it. I would have assumed the administration threw a fit about having Mexico pay for it instead.
They are going to put a tariff on flesh eating flies imported from Mexico instead
Mexico
South American nation
Wat
Don’t you know, only USA is true north America. Canada is their “younger brother” 🤣
America is Canada’s gut.
yeah. full of shit.
And Florida is the nipple?
Limp dick, actually.
We should wall off Florida and call it America’s cock ring. After getting all the fascist to move there.
a hanging turd
Believe it or not Canada is also South American. It’s next to the country of Mattel. /s
In a plot twist, the trump administration forgets to sterilize the flies before releasing them. And now they’ve accelerated the incursion into the US
You joke, but there was some dude in Florida (I think) who was contracted to do this with fruit flies and he started dropping healthy ones to make sure the program never ended.
Source; I can’t be bothered to look it up, trust me bro.
he can also extend his time in between appointments to allow the fruit flies to recover to achieve the same results. fruit flies breed pretty fast. thats why they have to do it to mosquitos(mosquitos might be harder since theres multiple species that can spread different diseases) and screworms so frequently, they lay a ton of eggs at once.
I am expecting the Trump Regime to cancel this program, and for EVERYONE to experience the consequences.
Kurzesaget: How Nuclear Flies Protect You from Flesh Eating Parasites
Hey that’s how I know about screw worms too
The worm in Kennedy’s brain will axe it for sure
I was gonna share that here if no one haven’t
Screwworms are currently in negotiations with the Trump administration.
Of course they are. They have connections through RFK Jr’s brain worm.
New meaning to the term “insider”.
“Everyone’s saying screw worms are bad — WRONG! Screw worms are actually amazing for controlling pests. They SAVE livestock, save money, and keep our food supply strong. We should THANK screw worms, not attack them. Sad how people don’t know the facts! #ScrewwormSuccess #MAGA”
Anyone wanna take bets on Trump cancelling the program to “save the budget”?
Depends on how he hears about it. If somebody brings it up as being beneficial to everybody, he’ll want to axe it, but if he just hears that we’re dumping tons of gross bugs on Mexico, he’ll probably be on board.
Don’t look up screw worms.
Get rid of the MAGAts in America first.
Well if we don’t deal with screw worms… they’ll deal with us lol
Life, uh, finds a way.
Never seen mexico referred as south america before
