The targeted pest is the flesh-eating larva of the new world screwworm fly. The US 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.
They're right - it does sound like some kinda fucked-up 50's science fiction flick. If they do make a movie about it, maybe they can convince Springstein to play the screw worm. Juss' sayin'...
and Flame Accent Light
(Remember the smell of the PIC mosquito things burning at night?)




screwworm eradication worked by using sterile flies dropped in a box from aircraft. the flies would mate but not reproduce. in the 1960s.
ReplyDeleteBug zappers really don't do much. The coils, well, depends on what's in them. Allethrin works pretty well (eg, OFF! coils); natural oils (rosemary, citronella, lemongrass, etc) have less efficacy and the vaporized oils may be a problem especially over decades of use (but nobody knows, the study is hard to do and the effects are likely small).
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