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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[–] SabinStargem 6 points 1 hour 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

[–] HurlingDurling@lemmy.world 4 points 1 hour ago
[–] buddascrayon@lemmy.world 9 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

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

[–] faythofdragons@slrpnk.net 1 points 18 minutes 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.

[–] caboose2006@lemmy.world 6 points 4 hours ago

Don't look up screw worms.

[–] peaceful_world_view@lemmy.world 4 points 5 hours ago

Get rid of the MAGAts in America first.

[–] k0e3@lemmy.ca 56 points 18 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.

[–] orbituary@lemmy.dbzer0.com 113 points 21 hours ago (18 children)

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

[–] protist@mander.xyz 47 points 17 hours ago (2 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

[–] TheRealKuni@lemmy.world 6 points 4 hours ago

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

[–] wulrus@lemmy.world 7 points 7 hours ago

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

[–] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world 12 points 18 hours ago

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

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[–] Stamau123@lemmy.world 131 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours 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

[–] fireweed@lemmy.world 1 points 3 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

[–] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

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

[–] tatterdemalion@programming.dev 2 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

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

[–] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 10 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.

[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 1 points 6 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”

[–] CaptainPedantic@lemmy.world 58 points 22 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.

[–] evenglow@lemmy.world 23 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

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

[–] protist@mander.xyz 8 points 17 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.

[–] evenglow@lemmy.world 1 points 7 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.

[–] protist@mander.xyz 7 points 17 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?

[–] Stamau123@lemmy.world 10 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] protist@mander.xyz 5 points 17 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

[–] Wazowski@lemmy.world 8 points 21 hours ago

"MAGAts for maggots"

[–] eRac@lemmings.world 50 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Mexico

South American nation

Wat

[–] FelixCress@lemmy.world 15 points 22 hours ago (7 children)

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

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[–] DarkCloud@lemmy.world 26 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago) (2 children)

Screwworms are currently in negotiations with the Trump administration.

[–] Someonelol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

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

[–] DarkCloud@lemmy.world 12 points 21 hours ago

New meaning to the term "insider".

[–] TragicNotCute@lemmy.world 10 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago)

“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”

[–] DrakeAlbrecht@sh.itjust.works 25 points 22 hours ago (1 children)
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