Sterilized Flies To Be Released In Order To Stop Flesh-Eating Maggot Infestation (cbsnews.com) 43
Beeftopia shares a report from CBS News: The U.S. government is preparing to breed billions of flies and dump them out of airplanes over Mexico and southern Texas to fight a flesh-eating maggot. That sounds like the plot of a horror movie, but it is part of the government's plans for protecting the U.S. from a bug that could devastate its beef industry, decimate wildlife and even kill household pets. This weird science has worked well before.
The targeted pest is the flesh-eating larva of the New World Screwworm fly. The U.S. Department of Agriculture plans to ramp up the breeding and distribution of adult male flies -- sterilizing them with radiation before releasing them. They mate with females in the wild, and the eggs laid by the female aren't fertilized and don't hatch. There are fewer larvae, and over time, the fly population dies out. It is more effective and environmentally friendly than spraying the pest into oblivion, and it is how the U.S. and other nations north of Panama eradicated the same pest decades ago. Sterile flies from a factory in Panama kept the flies contained there for years, but the pest appeared in southern Mexico late last year. [...]
The USDA expects a new screwworm fly factory to be up and running in southern Mexico by July 2026. It plans to open a fly distribution center in southern Texas by the end of the year so that it can import and distribute flies from Panama if necessary. The New World screwworm fly is a tropical species, unable to survive Midwestern or Great Plains winters, so it was a seasonal scourge. Still, the U.S. and Mexico bred and released more than 94 billion sterile flies from 1962 through 1975 to eradicate the pest, according to the USDA. The numbers need to be large enough that females in the wild can't help but hook up with sterile males for mating. One biological trait gives fly fighters a crucial wing up: Females mate only once in their weekslong adult lives. "A similar approach to certain species of mosquito is being debated," adds Beeftopia. "The impact on ecosystems is unclear."
The targeted pest is the flesh-eating larva of the New World Screwworm fly. The U.S. Department of Agriculture plans to ramp up the breeding and distribution of adult male flies -- sterilizing them with radiation before releasing them. They mate with females in the wild, and the eggs laid by the female aren't fertilized and don't hatch. There are fewer larvae, and over time, the fly population dies out. It is more effective and environmentally friendly than spraying the pest into oblivion, and it is how the U.S. and other nations north of Panama eradicated the same pest decades ago. Sterile flies from a factory in Panama kept the flies contained there for years, but the pest appeared in southern Mexico late last year. [...]
The USDA expects a new screwworm fly factory to be up and running in southern Mexico by July 2026. It plans to open a fly distribution center in southern Texas by the end of the year so that it can import and distribute flies from Panama if necessary. The New World screwworm fly is a tropical species, unable to survive Midwestern or Great Plains winters, so it was a seasonal scourge. Still, the U.S. and Mexico bred and released more than 94 billion sterile flies from 1962 through 1975 to eradicate the pest, according to the USDA. The numbers need to be large enough that females in the wild can't help but hook up with sterile males for mating. One biological trait gives fly fighters a crucial wing up: Females mate only once in their weekslong adult lives. "A similar approach to certain species of mosquito is being debated," adds Beeftopia. "The impact on ecosystems is unclear."
dump files what format? (Score:2)
dump files what format?
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They're serialized according to the title, so maybe a segmented RAR archive?
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dump files what format?
They will be serialized, it says; JSON?
Dump flies like a serial format.
Fruit flies like a banana cereal.
Finally (Score:1, Insightful)
You can't stop him (Score:3, Funny)
Stephen Miller cannot die. His head will split open and he will molt out of his carapace, then a fresh new Stephen Miller will emerge.
Not a new thing (Score:5, Informative)
This has been going on for a long time, the headline/summary make it sound like this is something new. Kurzgesagt did a recent video on this, How Nuclear Flies Protect You from Flesh-Eating Parasites [youtube.com]
Re: Not a new thing (Score:1)
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yes, the panama "fly-wall" failed some way (probably flies in shipping containers arrived north of it) and the war have to be again extended back to the northern
(of panama) countries to eradicate it again
Re: Not a new thing (Score:2)
They were contained in that area with a big effort from the late 50's to the early 80's, but we slacked off and now they are on the move again. Unless you're willing to DDT large portions of Panama, this will be an ongoing war.
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"it is how the U.S. and other nations north of Panama eradicated the same pest decades ago"
"the U.S. and Mexico bred and released more than 94 billion sterile flies from 1962 through 1975 to eradicate the pest, according to the USDA"
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This is very much new. The screwflies made it through the containment gap that has held them back for a generation. They are moving north toward the US again, and fast.
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I'm sorry... them? These days I'm not sure whether that means left or right...?
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I mean they're so special if they made a school bus for them it'd need to be so short I'm not even sure it'll be Plank length.
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I'm sorry... them? These days I'm not sure whether that means left or right...?
America doesn't have a left. Just a right, and everyone even righter of them. Thoug some of Trump's most trusted brownosers have hit an integer overflow bug and suddenly showed up on the left https://x.com/JackPosobiec/sta... [x.com]
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America doesn't have a left. Just a right, and everyone even righter of them. Thoug some of Trump's most trusted brownosers have hit an integer overflow bug and suddenly showed up on the left https://x.com/JackPosobiec/sta... [x.com]
Jack Michael Posobiec III is an American alt-right conspiracy theorist. Jack is a moron and doesn't understand science. He understands fascism quite well.
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.... is sterilizing the immigrants they are rounding up and sending back to their home countries in hopes they will cut down on the migrating population. ðY
Satire quickly becomes reality because stupid people don't know the difference.
Re: Trump administration.... (Score:2, Insightful)
Idiocracy in action.
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If it was Idiocracy in action, we'd have tests to find the smartest among us to put them directly in positions of authority.
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If it was Idiocracy in action, we'd have tests to find the smartest among us to put them directly in positions of authority.
The TDS conspiracy theorists have Old Orange Jesus running his fascist government decades ago when we started using this method to control screwworms.
I lay even odds that they'll be out protesting in a "Save the Screwworms" wave soon.
It is very strange too, that we're helping Mexico, so we can import Mexican beef again?
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It is very strange too, that we're helping Mexico, so we can import Mexican beef again?
Texas is still in america? It affects Texas, too.
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It is very strange too, that we're helping Mexico, so we can import Mexican beef again?
Texas is still in america? It affects Texas, too.
Are you like disagreeing with me or something?
Yes - Texas is in the United States, although every time a Democrat is elected president, they threaten to secede. It takes a bit of the wind out of their sails when the reply is "Okay by us!" Perhaps I need to explain a little deeper.
It is pretty obvious that especially in 2016 to 2000, that Mexico was not on Trump's Christmas card list. Remember how he was going to force Mexico to pay for his big beautiful wall, the wall that was going to keep the USA
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Aren't we living in a satire?
We're living in something interesting when an effort that started in 1962 is attributed to Orange Jesus.
It's a reboot of the "Thanks Obama" meme, when everything was blamed on Obama.
It's how people like me can hold both Democrats and Republicans in utter contempt. Because they deserve that contempt.
medieval medicine (Score:1)
Flesh-eating flies inhabit half the planet: This is why the medieval/survivalist remedy of allowing flies into burn wounds is very, very stupid. Put out dead meat, then transfer the fly eggs from it to the living wound.
Re:medieval medicine (Score:5, Insightful)
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exactly, this ones cause more infection and eat live tissue, the wounds are just a easy way to enter
the other ones eat dead tissue, reducing the infection and allowing faster healing the remaining good tissue. As they are selective, they are much better than human removing the dead tissue
You just can't win (Score:2)
He has a bad infection!
Get some maggots to eat that out.
Now the maggots are out of control!
Shit, get me some flies...
The flies are overrunning us!
Get me some very large carnivores plants.
The plants are murdering! And singing!
God damn it, let's round up some pesticide.
Oops we're killing the bees -- we need them!
Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck...
Sounds like a horror movie (Score:2)
A trashy one
Back from the dead thanks to Biden (Score:2)
Aren't all maggots flesh eating? (Score:2)
Waiter, there's a sterilized fly in my soup.. (Score:2)
Please lower your voice sir, or else everyone will want one.
It's raining men! (Score:2)
Uruguay Going One Better than US (Score:3)
https://www.technologyreview.c... [technologyreview.com]
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In South America, due the huge size of tropical forest, is much harder to do the sterilized male flies method, Central America being thin and North America is mostly too cold for all year flies surviving, helped a lot in this having success. But in the south, other methods are needed and gene editing may be helpful, even if it may not solve the problem, may help it make less prevalent
Life finds a way. (Score:1)
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the flesh-eating rats, of course
If eradicating flies, why not mosquitos? (Score:2)
If eradicating these flies is acceptable, why not mosquitos? [slashdot.org] There are certainly ecosystem impacts from removing the flies, the question it seems to me is, "Are they acceptable?" Apparently yes. How did they arrive at these conclusions - just test it and see? Or was the benefit worth whatever the costs to the ecosystem?