The US has reportedly drawn up plans to breed billions of flies over Mexico in an attempt to eradicate a vicious variety of flesh-eating maggot.

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.

  • evenglow@lemmy.world
    343·
    24 days ago

    Worth noting that people still have no idea how much damage Trump and Republicans did the first go around.

    • protist@mander.xyzEnglish
      14·
      24 days ago

      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.

      • evenglow@lemmy.world
        23·
        24 days ago

        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.

        • Yeather@lemmy.ca
          3·
          23 days ago

          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!

          • evenglow@lemmy.world
            12·
            23 days ago

            You seem very confused. What is the point of your comment or how do you relate it to my comments?

            • Yeather@lemmy.ca
              21·
              23 days ago

              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.