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] 5 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

Never seen mexico referred as south america before

[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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] 21 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)

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.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 day ago (2 children)

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] 3 points 8 hours ago

The worm in Kennedy's brain will axe it for sure

[–] [email protected] 4 points 17 hours ago

Hey that's how I know about screw worms too

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 day 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] 10 points 1 day ago
[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 day ago

Don't look up screw worms.

[–] [email protected] 148 points 2 days ago (19 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] 68 points 1 day 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] 16 points 1 day ago

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

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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] 2 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 2 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

As an anerican my faith in the government stopping this is maybe 20%.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 15 hours ago

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

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 day ago

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

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 days ago

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

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[–] [email protected] 161 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (12 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] 8 points 1 day ago

That dog pic is actually a little tame. I've seen some nightmare inducing pics of screwworm infections.

[–] [email protected] 73 points 2 days 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] 34 points 2 days ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 day ago (5 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.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day 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

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[–] [email protected] 61 points 2 days ago (1 children)

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] 2 points 12 hours ago

They are going to put a tariff on flesh eating flies imported from Mexico instead

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

Get rid of the MAGAts in America first.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 17 hours ago

Well if we don't deal with screw worms... they'll deal with us lol

[–] [email protected] 57 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Mexico

South American nation

Wat

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 days ago (7 children)

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

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

Screwworms are currently in negotiations with the Trump administration.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 days ago (1 children)

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

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 2 days ago (1 children)
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