this post was submitted on 03 Jul 2025
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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.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 hour ago

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

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 hours ago

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

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 hours ago
[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Anyone wanna take bets on Trump cancelling the program to "save the budget"?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 hours ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 hours ago

Don't look up screw worms.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 hours ago

Get rid of the MAGAts in America first.

[–] [email protected] 57 points 20 hours ago

I'm surprised they're still doing it. I would have assumed the administration threw a fit about having Mexico pay for it instead.

[–] [email protected] 120 points 22 hours ago (3 children)

Mexico is not "South American." Most of it isn't even "Central American." The person who wrote this needs some geography lessons.

[–] [email protected] 50 points 19 hours ago (3 children)

This article also makes this sound like a brand new endeavor, as if this hasn't been an ongoing project for 70 years now

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 hours ago

Well, where they're dropping them is recent, as the screwworm has been steadily moving north again.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 hours ago

When you are not up to date on the topic, it sounds like a far-fetched dystopian alternate timeline.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 20 hours ago

I sent them a message to see if they'd update it. Just out of curiosity.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

Europe's understanding of the geography outside its tiny landmass is utterly laughable.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

"Tiny landmass"? Tell me you have no idea of geography without telling me you have no idea of geography.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 20 hours ago (3 children)

Second smallest continent, behind even Antarctica.

It's tiny my dude.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

I mean let's be honest, they shouldn't get to call themselves a continent even.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 hours ago

If you're talking about that mountain range, sure we can be Eurasia instead then

[–] [email protected] 8 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

Rhode Island is tiny, Europe is not

[–] [email protected] 3 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

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)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 hours ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 hours ago

For a country it's huge. For a landmass it's small.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (4 children)

"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

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

what make you think I have good understanding of Europe and geography?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 hours ago

Living there and also maps existing.

[–] [email protected] 138 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (5 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 hours ago

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.

Source

[–] [email protected] 5 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

It happened while Biden was president, though. Like 2022|23.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

I need to know who to blame, can I get a source?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 hours ago

There was a fairly recent article posted on Lemmy somewhere saying they had broken through, but I don’t remember it including a “why”

[–] [email protected] 60 points 23 hours ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 9 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 hours 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.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

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?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago) (1 children)

Your comment made me think again at my sources. Re-researching starting with the link from @[email protected] and eventually through this Atlantic article it seems as though pandemic supply chain issues finally caught up to the fly factory.

But as @[email protected] said, I'd still chalk that up as first term damage, and Trump and DOGE should get screwworms.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 18 hours ago

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

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[–] [email protected] 52 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Mexico

South American nation

Wat

[–] [email protected] 16 points 23 hours ago (7 children)

Don't you know, only USA is true north America. Canada is their "younger brother" 🤣

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (2 children)

Screwworms are currently in negotiations with the Trump administration.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Of course they are. They have connections through RFK Jr's brain worm.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 23 hours ago (1 children)
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