The Fall and Rise of Screwworm

andy99•7 minutes ago

Very cool for those involved to be able to work on such a practical and helpful research problem. It feels like most research is so removed from practicality, or a problem looking for a solution. I’m sure there were lots of blind alleys not covered, but overall it’s a very “feel good” scientific story.

goda90•about 2 hours ago

I wonder if anyone ever did the math on whether trying to maintain a barrier at the Darian Gap with occasional failures was really a better financial choice than teaming up with South American countries to drive screwworms to extinction.

AlotOfReading•about 1 hour ago

Yes, they did because various countries have talked to the US about expanding it. The problem is that South America is an enormous place, whereas Panama is a narrow isthmus. It could have been done with some amount of money, but that opportunity ended in 2010 at the latest.

cogman10•8 minutes ago

The reason we got screwworm in control in the first place was liberal use of DDT. That part usually gets left out when talking about how we conquered screwworm. The sterile fly program was a second round sterilization program. DDT wiped out the majority of the flies and the sterile flies eliminated the remaining population.

You'd be causing untold damage to the biosphere of south america by using the same tactic as was used in north america (and I'm sure we killed off a bunch of species because of our DDT approach in north america).

comrade1234•about 1 hour ago

Out of curiosity I looked up the cost to south American beef producers like Argentina/brazil. The extra constant animal inspections costs ~$10 per cattle up until slaughter I think. Not a huge cost but a pain nonetheless.

boelboel•about 1 hour ago

$10 in Brazil/Argentine would be significantly more in the US because of labour costs I assume. Is there any training needed for the inspections/enough people who could do it on a short notice in the US? Could drive up the price even more.

Not that I believe it'll drive up the price that much but I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up being 50-70 USD per in the US.

dcrazy•about 1 hour ago

Surely the bigger issue is not the inspections, but the loss of infected livestock?

whalesalad•about 1 hour ago

> Eventually capable of producing more than 200 million screwworm flies a week, the Mission factory was a grotesque marvel of insect-producing efficiency. Operating 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, it was, in essence, a 76,000-square-foot artificial wound. Trays full of meat, blood, and water, each one heated to the exact right temperature to stimulate screwworm growth, moved through the facility on a monorail system timed to the lifecycle of the screwworm.

Imagine working at the screwworm factory.

alexpotato•about 1 hour ago

I was born with no sense of smell [0] and I always wondered if I could combine that with my tech skills to be CTO at a place like the screwworm factory or possibly Waste Management.

0 - https://x.com/alexpotato/status/1559865770515087360?s=20

delichon•13 minutes ago

> I applied this principle and married someone with a great sense of smell

May you and your smelling nose wife live happily ever after.

bee_rider•about 1 hour ago

I guess you’d probably have taken some solace in the fact that you didn’t have to live at the screwworm factory. Past tense, unfortunately, since the worms are setting up their own factories all over.

qsxfthnkp2322•about 1 hour ago

Just like eggs

Any excuse to raise prices.

AnimalMuppet•18 minutes ago

If you think that screwworm is just an excuse to raise prices, I think that you badly misunderstand the situation.

The Fall and Rise of Screwworm

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