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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 na
by AlotOfReading 3mo 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 3mo ago[deleted for being misinformation]
- aeontech 3mo agoHmm, that seems to contradict the article directly - insecticides were used to try to battle screwworm initially and were not really effective - the solution was using sterile male flies to stop reproduction - which would work in South America just as well as it did in North (with sufficient scale)
- cogman10 3mo agoYou and the article are correct so I erased my comment. I found and read through some of the reports of the time to try and prove myself correct. I'm wrong. https://www.nal.usda.gov/exhibits/speccoll/exhibits/show/stop-screwworms--selections-fr/1958-1969 https://www.nal.usda.gov/exhibits/speccoll/exhibits/show/sto...
- moffkalast 3mo agoIn 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.
- warumdarum 3mo agoThis is a generalizeable problem though, all these conservation efforts, nuclear powerplants etc rely on thr base assumption of a working society there. To really extinct something like the screwworm you need to make it a religous praxis of a cultural orgsnization that persist even when society breaks down.
- moffkalast 3mo agoNo that's the whole point of driving something to extinction, you don't have to be vigilant anymore once it's done. Smallpox, the Tasmanian tiger.