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Why the US Drops 14.7 Million Worms On Panama Every Week

Half as Interesting · 3.5M views · 2024-06-06 · 8:18

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Overview

A Half as Interesting explainer on the US program that drops millions of sterile screwworm flies over Panama every week to keep the parasite out of North America.

On Hacker News

Cited in screwworm threads as a short description of the sterile-insect barrier system that worked for decades.

Recommended by 1 HN people across 1 months · HN mentions 2024–2025

Topics

Animals & natureEnvironment, agriculture & food systemsBiology & biotechnology
Search by tags
screwwormsterile insect techniquepanamalivestockpest control

What people said

colechristensen · 2025-08 · Recommendation

Here's a video describing the system that fell apart which had been working for a long time to keep these flies out of north america [VIDEO]

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anitil · 2024-10 · Reference

I believe now they use sterile mosquito larva to achieve the same now [0], though it's from a youtube video so I'm not sure how much to trust it. [0] [VIDEO]

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positr0n · 2024-09 · Reference

Wow bummer, do you have a good link about that? Screw worms are controlled very successfully this way, although they are sterilized via radiation not genetic modification. I wonder if that makes a difference. Sorry to ask you for a link and use a YouTube video as my source but it's the best I got right now: [VIDEO]

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Sources

Video by Half as Interesting, played through YouTube.

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