The Fall and Rise of Screwworm (construction-physics.com)
66 points by crescit_eundo 4 hours ago
Planktonne 18 minutes ago
> (Some anti-screwworm efforts may have been hindered by DOGE, which cut APHIS staff, screwworm monitoring programs, and may have delayed funding for the Mexico facility, but it’s hard to be confident about this, and the administration has unsurprisingly rejected these claims.)
For an article that is so detailed in other areas, this feels like a very short dismissal of a topic that--regardless of direction--deserves more focus.
needSomeCoffee an hour ago
Thanks to the author. That was a great read imho. Loved the early parts about the guys who -- despite the ridicule and lack of resources -- achieved eradication. Again, great read.
goda90 3 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 3 hours 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.
moffkalast 25 minutes ago
In the end though, history will see it as a half measure where they really shouldn't have half assed it. It only took one moron to defund the project and all of it will come streaming back.
cogman10 2 hours ago
[deleted for being misinformation]
aeontech an hour ago
consensus1 12 minutes ago
I think the issue is that you would have to push the barrier across the entire South American continent, which is twice the distance of the US-Mexico border and also crosses the Amazon where there is basically no infrastructure.
comrade1234 3 hours 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 2 hours 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 2 hours ago
Surely the bigger issue is not the inspections, but the loss of infected livestock?
marcosdumay an hour ago
It's not some contagious disease that will spread to every animal. One can just treat the infected cattle until they get healthy again.
taco_emoji 44 minutes ago
Well that's nightmare fuel D:
CodingJeebus an hour ago
> Overall, the screwworm program seems like a classic case of something becoming a victim of its own success: a problem got solved so thoroughly that we forget how big of a problem it was, and we gradually undermine the conditions that made the solution possible.
Chesterson's Fence strikes again. It's so easy to wax poetic about how ineffective government spending always is and should be cut to the bone that we don't stop to recognize that preventative programs like this save us from billions in economic losses.
JKCalhoun 16 minutes ago
"Some anti-screwworm efforts may have been hindered by DOGE, which cut APHIS staff, screwworm monitoring programs, and may have delayed funding for the Mexico facility…"
Yep.
consensus1 8 minutes ago
The article is very clear that the issue arose in 2021 and the main causes are increased migration / cattle smuggling across the Darien Gap and over zealous COVID lockdowns. But sure, cherry pick that quote because you want to blame something that happened 4 years after the problem started.
whalesalad 3 hours 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 2 hours 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 2 hours 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.
trashface an hour ago
I'm sure the fly production methodology has improved over the years, but based on what TFA describes, I'm not sure lacking smell would save you from disgust. I think even a Buddhist would be hard-pressed to find compassion for this particular fly species.
bee_rider 3 hours 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.