Why the US Drops 14.7 Million Worms On Panama Every Week

[@Sailor-Man-Dave]

This program is probably THE MOST EFFECTIVE use of money in history!! When I was a kid, screwworms infected cattle, horses, people, really any warm-blooded animal. Their larva literally ate the victim alive, leaving gaping holes of the most revolting kind. Millions of head of livestock were lost to them, and tens of millions (maybe more) in lost earnings and treatment. Sterilizing the flies so that they produce non-viable offspring was a genius idea. If those who thought of it didn't get a Nobel Prize, they certainly should have. This is right up there with smallpox and polio vaccines and antibiotics. Thank you Lord for people like those who developed this!

[@monty3322]

I live in sheep and goat country, I remember that back in the 70s. Horrible. Walking dead sheep and goat were all over.

[@bob-yd8xv]

Thank you lord?? If a lord exists then it's responsible for creating those screworms in the first place and inflicting that suffering.

[@Shewas-kathybates]

@@bob-yd8xv how miserable are you

[@psychotropnilachtan8869]

@@bob-yd8xv Suffering makes you stronger and better person in general. Screworm therapy will change your life.

[@erickpoorbaugh6728]

@@bob-yd8xv Oh, look, a fanatic who can't stand even a passing mention of a religion he doesn't believe in without rabbit-trailing into his soapbox.

[@diegoulate6544]

I worked for the screw worm program in Costa Rica. A total success! I am very proud of being part of such an achievement

[@felice9907]

why is the screw worm such a problem over there, and since when? has it been all along or what? i am asking seriously, from central europe where we would first try to understand if there was a ecological reason for the massive impact of these worms ... . it is always dangerous and can turn to the opposite effect, to play god and try to change things on such a huge scale.

[@diegoulate6544]

@@felice9907 Hi! This fly is actually native of the Americas and wildlife has evolved with them and figured out ways to protect themselves better than domestic animals. Even though this fly is certainly affecting survival at a general level. From Texas to Panama it got eliminated but this time it crossed the barrier we added to keep them at bay in South America from where would be impossible to eliminate. So whoever owns domestic animas must protect them or lose them. Is not impossible to keep removing this flies, They are well prepared. Yes we changed the range of a native species but the economic and salubrity benefits from doing it are huge and even the natural environment gets a break from mistreatments from our part. So...Yeah!

[@istochnikov45257]

Lo ocupamos de nuevo en el frente... Ya sabes por qué...

[@davidboatman925]

Bravo to scientists, researchers, naturalists and taxpayers.

[@kennyb2497]

Thank you!!

[@bootblacking]

I can't remember his name but there was a congressman who did elaborate shamings of "wasteful" government projects, he tore into the screwworm research saying the government had better things to do than study how flies have sex. And now it saves approximately $985 million dollars in dead cattle and other livestock every year. And prevents an enormous amount of human suffering and death. Science is important, even seemingly ridiculous inquiries, and deserves more of our public funding.

[@cosmicroundingerror]

ah yes, that was the Golden Fleece Award, a truly remarkable commitment to scientific illiteracy and ignorance

[@colejosephalexanderkashay683]

Rand Paul?

[@scottswanson5803]

It was a nonprofit called Citizens Against Government Waste which criticized the screwworm research in 1991, basically saying "Hey, we already eradicated it from the U.S., why do we need to continue spending money on it?"

[@rudykraft5526]

Senator William Proxmire

[@Will-tm5bj]

I wonder what color red hat they wear

[@grantcritchfieldstexastrai7072]

I'm old enough to remember when screwworms were a very real problem in Texas. I remember finding the paper boxes containing sterile flies while hiking through rangeland where they were dropped from planes over infested areas. A brief description of the project was printed on the box in Spanish & English for the finder to tear the box open & release the flies if the box was not already torn open from the impact with the ground. I also remember that white-tailed deer were always preset in the area but never in the abundance the are currently. The deer population never really began growing exponentially until the 1970's & 80's mainly because of the disappearance of screwworms. I can only imagine how the fly program positively impacted other species of nongame wildlife as well. This was a very important successful project & it's sad that we have largely forgotten about it. Thanks for a great video about a great story.

[@pandjbruno]

Wow!

[@Brasswatchman]

@@grantcritchfieldstexastrai7072 Huh. The bit about the deer brings up an interesting question. What's the ethical priority here -- avoiding modifications to the natural ecosystem, or condemning countless organisms to an incredibly painful and horrific death?

[@LibertyMonk]

​@@Brasswatchmanyeah, that is a question, but the screw worm isn't a keystone species or even a benign or symbiotic species. The biggest danger of modifying ecosystems is eliminating (or damaging the population of) a keystone species that the whole system hinges on, introducing an invasive species that will choke out the system, or just polluting/exploiting/converting the land for human use. Screw worms aren't cornerstones, the extermination scheme isn't the bad idea of introducing a predator etc, and a million insects is an insignificant change. The ecosystems are fine. Fewer animals dieing to screw worms just means the prey populations can support more predators or can weather more diseases.

[@mjt1517]

@@Brasswatchman You don't ask such questions about smallpox or polio. It is the same here, just on a higher scale of being.

[@Brasswatchman]

@@mjt1517 Fair point.

[@ArkadiBolschek]

Fun fact: this same strategy works on many other pests. A biologist cousin of mine has worked in a similar project to stop the tiger mosquito from spreading throughout Spain.

[@ajtocsugo]

Did it succeed? Those damned mosquitos are everywhere in Central Europe.

[@angelcosta4383]

Hi! I'm a biological engineer and live in eastern Spain, one of the most affected areas. I've heard about that project and is really cool.

[@Trefens]

We have a different but same thing in Kenya. It's helped reduce the cases of malaria to almost negligible over the past 1-2 decades

[@standdownrobots_ihaveoldglory]

Oh nice, I’ve been informed I’m visiting Spain within a couple years, tell your cousin to let me know when the skeeters are gone 😂😂😂

[@yp77738yp77739]

This type of methodology works. I had a stunning specimen horse chestnut tree that became infested with an invasive horse chestnut miner moth. It very nearly killed the tree, but 2 years ago I started using pheromone traps to attract the male moths and now the tree is 99% free of leaf damage and getting less every flush of new moths. It killed thousands at first, with numbers slowly decreasing, the birds eat the remaining few, no pesticides needed. Only attracts and kills the one invasive species and I only use 1 trap per tree.

[@bestoca]

This issue has been affecting palm trees all around the Mediterranean with the red palm weevil. My parents lived in Portugal a few years ago and my dad had a bucket trap for their mature palm tree. It was still going strong last I heard but there were very few palms still standing in the area and it completely changed the local landscape.

[@yp77738yp77739]

@@bestoca It is ultimately fighting a loosing battle though, as soon as you cease the control measures it will come straight back. The hope is that the indigenous flora develops a resistance (which may take thousands of years for evolutionary pressures to work on the mutations) or the local fauna learns to predate on the new pest as a food source. I’ve heard that certain birds are learning to eat the moths in the last few years. Although globalisation has increased the rate of spread of new pests, the reality is that these processes have been occurring since the dawn of life, isn’t it something like 98% of all species that once existed are extinct. Of course you could make a very good argument that we are by a very large margin, the most destructive and invasive pest of all!

[@shakacien]

Biochemical tech, the next slow revolution past the digital.

[@yp77738yp77739]

@@shakacien As a molecular biologist I should be in agreement. However, the downside is that ecosystems (as is the climate) are highly complex systems. An intervention into one of the inputs will, with certainty, not have the expected output. Even our best models today remain as good as useless in predicting outputs of such systems, for example, the most advanced meteorological systems offer no better than using seaweed beyond 4 days. We have no mastery over our world.

[@bestoca]

@@yp77738yp77739 Brings to mind the reintroduction of Apex predators into the wild such as the wolves in the U.S. national parks and how the landscape and habitat changed thru their eradication. And whilst this analogy is most likely simplistic in comparison, it still took nigh on a 100 years before we realised our error. Just one cog...

[@rustworker]

I worked on a documentary in 2017 about the horrible Zika virus and in one of the sequences, scientists bred and released mosquitoes in a Brazilian city. Mosquitos are a carrier but these mosquitos were genetically modified so although they could breed, their lava would not survive. It worked on the same principle as the screw flies. It was very effective.

[@Khazar321]

And yet mosquitoes have become a horrible plaque in most of the world and nobody cares.. because it doesn't destroy industry property.. Disgusting what motivates these projects.

[@charlesmrader]

It's worth mentioning that there is an enormous and silly public opposition to the GMO insect method of eradication. It's silly because if you read the comments section of any news story about a release of the GMO mosquitoes, you will see some ignorant comments that most people would recognize as silly. Here are some examples: 1) Many animals eat mosquitoes, so we will be hurting the very animals who reduce the natural mosquito population. Why is that silly? First, because these animals eat many different mosquitoes' species and eliminating the one bad species does not harm any animal. 2) Because almost everywhere that dangerous mosquitoes live near humans, the communities use some method of mosquito control and these methods affect almost all mosquito species. 1,2) A very very common mosquito control method is spraying poison. But poisons don't kill mosquitoes instantly. While the poison is working, the mosquito gets very weak and is the easiest mosquito for the predator to catch. So the predator consumes the poison. 3) The mosquito that carries Zika is Aedes aegypti, and in all the places where the GMO mosquitoes are released, A. aegypti is an invasive species, nothing the native predators would be depending on. 4) The idiots say that there is a possibility that the GMO mosquito would out-compete the wild mosquito. That's a complete misunderstanding of how evolution works. There are many other silly objections.

[@arandomcommenter412]

that would have been scary, I'm glad those mosquitos no longer lay lava down, that would really suck.

[@mal2ksc]

@@arandomcommenter412 It's hard enough when the floor is lava. Imagine if every mosquito was lava too.

[@mariadracona]

​@@mal2ksc😂😂

[@emptymannull]

We have these in the Dominican Republic. They killed a young donkey I got back in the late 1990s. The vet gave us a purple spray that killed the maggots, but didn't work well because they were down in the inner ear eating towards the brain. Poor donkey 😢

[@johnladuke6475]

Well, "attached to Haiti" just got bumped down to second place on my list of reasons to avoid the Dominican. Not sure whether that's good for you, but I guess congratulations to Haiti on being the less terrifying option compared to the flies.

[@Arkelk2010]

Poor donkey, indeed.

[@joelanderson5285]

No Bot Flys are different they feed on puss.

[@billpetersen298]

@@johnladuke6475Put bug screens, over your ear holes, you’ll be fine.

[@longiusaescius2537]

@@johnladuke6475 real

[@peternesset2601]

I live in Brazil, and my dogs have gotten screw worm infections. It is horrible, and apparently the period between laying the eggs and having a really gruesome infestation is very short. The worm wall is a very worthwhile investment.

[@Brasswatchman]

Hope it someday makes it down to you somehow. And also that screwworms don't turn out to be secretly super-important in the natural food chain.

[@michaelccozens]

@@Brasswatchman It's worth considering, you're right, but one would assume that's being thought-on and examined, and the fact that we haven't seen any major apparent knock-on effects in North America seems good evidence that whatever niche the screw-worm fills currently doesn't seem negatively-affected by their elimination (whether that's due to the niche remaining empty or to another species filling it in a less-destructive manner would be an interesting question. We've certainly eliminated other pests without much in the way of apparent harm to the ecosystem). Also a good point about expanding the "worm-free" zone. imagine how much more loss could be prevented, and how much cheaper maintenance of the eradication would be, if the entire N/S American landmass were freed from the screw-worm.

[@bzipoli]

​@@Brasswatchmanthey're indigenous to this region (i also live in brazil). we have this technology already (the interrupted mate cycle-generational by getting a female with no offspring possibility or similar), although not in this scale (no one has this scale, i mean). we used in several places (as research) for the aedes aegypt mosquito, and it worked for a while, but the mosquitoes adapted somehow and bypassed. and it wasn't even radiation, it was a genetical alteration technique because the radiation on females already doesn't work on this mosquitoes somehow. it works like this: the male is genetically modified and it mates normally with the female. but the dominant gene from the male (the modified one) makes most of the mosquitoes born infertiles (if the dominant gene wins, the offspring is infertile). so with constant reintroductions of new modified lab aedes the population should be at least very very small some generations ahead, right? then you just kill it with chemicals pretty easy no. they just evolved to bypass the gene modification years into the research. the fly thing isn't a huge problem, probably because they have natural predators (which they don't out of tropical areas). but its still terrible and not only pet owners but people from the agricultural business gotta be extra careful

[@stephenjenkins7971]

A worthwhile investment from the US to non-US countries that hate the US anyway. 😅

[@Brasswatchman]

@@stephenjenkins7971 It's not like we didn't do plenty during the Cold War to deserve it. (Except in Venezuela, weirdly enough?) Maybe this could be a step in the right direction.

[@robertlassetter3482]

Back in the early 1960s I was a kid running around the El Paso Texas airport where I had no business being. I saw a group of men loading boxes into an airplane. The small white boxes had a logo that looked like a bullseye to me. I asked,"Are they bullets?". One man laughed, said "Yeah", and opened the box in my face. It was a box of very active Flys. They had a good laugh as I freaked out. I wondered about men air dropping Flys. Now I know the story. Thanks.

[@nekomakhea9440]

The most important facts in this video are: 1. deer like doughnut holes 2. deer will come up to you and eat doughnut holes from your hand 3. you can claim you're eradicating invasive species sot that nobody will stop you from feeding doughnut holes to deer

[@Add_Infinitum]

Doubt the deer ate from their hands but feel free to test it

[@Joseph-shmoseph]

I have deer in my backyard already. Please do not give deer any more reason to like humans. Good theory though.

[@EebstertheGreat]

Please don't feed the deer.

[@ericwilliams1659]

Please don't feed your deer human food.

[@missourimongoose8858]

My step mom loves to bake and my whole family loves loose leaf tea so we stock up and every few weeks we will dump the used tea leaves and bread around our deer stands, they absolutely love it lol we also like to put Kool aid in the corn we feed them for a treat

[@SaschahiGG]

"shooting worms with radiation then releasing them by the millions" sounds like a movie explanation of how the zombie virus outbreak began

[@EEEEEEEE]

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[@emmiannon1266]

Dont worry, if the radioactive worms become a problem, we'l just release millions of radioactive super mantises to combat them

[@ericwilliams1659]

At least the origin story for Mothra

[@eamoralesl]

Have you seen All nightmare long music video from Metallica???

[@TasteOfButterflies]

Or a slightly smarter movie's explanation of how it ended, possibly.

[@lostinrabbithole12]

Imagine walking around there and all of a sudden a bunch of worms fall from the sky onto you

[@Jedittee]

Imagine walking through frog rain

[@PowerPointGaming]

They are inside your skin

[@theorixlux]

Yummies! 😋

[@Eoin-B]

They are dropped as flies. If anything worse.

[@jacobramirez4894]

And imagine u open ur mouth

[@dingdiddledoo]

Doyle Conner who was a commissioner of agriculture for Florida played a large roll in this project. I remember when president Fox of Mexico invited him for a state visit and gave him an award after Mexico had eradicated the screw worms there.

[@CrackedCandy]

A cowboy from wyoming told me how a rancher would see a steer that had its horns freshly removed would become infected with these. The worms would make their way into the fresh wound. He would ripe them then spit his tobacco "juice" into the wound and they would come running out. Crazy.

[@vennex6928]

True, nicotine is toxic to insects, it's actually why tobacco contains it, to repel them.

[@misanthropicservitorofmars2116]

No living thing can stand tobacco.

[@SherbertHusky]

@@misanthropicservitorofmars2116 Except humans apparently. For a few decades at least.

[@jaelwyn]

Topically applied tobacco juice has been used as an antiparasitic against various species of fly larvae for a long, long time. Probably other things too, but that use specifically has been found in indigenous populations as a "traditional" remedy.

[@gnomusgang8658]

Sam from Wendover please don’t send Amy to Panama with the bugs

[@michaela8426]

Send Amy to Panama with the bugs

[@tinttiboi]

I can't wait for Sam from Wendover to send Amy to Panama with the bugs

[@EEEEEEEE]

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[@Hertz2pp]

Ah, this must be Amy's burner account lol

[@shashankmahalingam5254]

Who is this Sam from Wendover? You should be asking Sam from HAI.

[@nonyadamnbusiness9887]

An example of how the government should work. I never heard of this before and it costs less than 5 cents per person, per year. And that's how it should be with the rest of it.

[@TooBiggoBritches]

That's kinda already how it is. You just pay an even larger share for the next-gen military hardware.

[@kylepessell1350]

Effective government spending backed up by scientific research with an agenda that supports the greater good across the vast majority of lines which generally divide people on issues of public projects. There are more of these than people think but if they do their job correctly then you don't even notice they are working. This is good on the one hand because it's unobtrusive but on the other hand it means that they don't get a lot of popular support and could be attacked/defunded by those who don't understand how vital said projects are.

[@327legoman]

@cassandra9699 Governments are supposed to reign those in and force them to be beneficial for everyone. Otherwise it's a plutocracy not a democracy.

[@themonsterunderyourbed9408]

​​@cassandra9699 no, it's the government fighting shadow wars by sending hundreds of billions in taxpayer dollars to foreign countries and ruining our economy.

[@henrybutchy3242]

No! Drain the swamp! It's all a worm hoax and taxpayer rip-off. MAGA! Fight bullshit science! Promote racism and revenge! Vote Trump!

[@blankityblankblank2321]

a pound of prevention is worth a ton of cure.

[@theenzoferrari458]

No. Not even close degenerate. It's a penny or a pound of flesh.

[@brichess8227]

or in this case 10 tons of sterilized worms

[@jackMeought-fr8vl]

Our healthcare system disagrees

[@curranfrank2854]

@@jackMeought-fr8vl unfortunately so, yea

[@justsomejerseydevilwithint4606]

This is yet ANOTHER thing that would go horribly wrong if society breaks down.

[@Smile200-z4y]

If

[@Lost1ntheSauc3]

What about all the horrible things created by society in the first place?

[@benn454]

​@@Lost1ntheSauc3Whataboutism

[@stigcc]

What could go wrong? Oh you mean that the factories would stop and the screwworms would invade us?

[@Lost1ntheSauc3]

@@benn454 Saying 'whataboutism' has the same effect as whataboutism itself. You're breaking away from the topic at hand to point out something adjacent but irrelevant.

[@Shazza2024]

We do this in Australia with flies and its almost totally wiped them out in treated areas which is a big deal. Dung beetles helped too

[@HansKrause-k6r]

@Shazza2024 I grew up in a time when our school playgrounds were sprayed with DDT every year to control flys and mosquitoes. The country was flooded with the stuff, now you place 50mm of top soil on agricultural land and call it organic.

[@jimfree0]

I was working in Nicaragua from 1995-1998. After seeing the wounds on the local cattle and a few colleagues, I'll pay more taxes to keep those things out. No output of tax dollar makes me sleep better at night~!

[@eboygboy3249]

The things humans can do when they work together rather than trying to kill each other

[@punbug4721]

The thing they're working on? Trying to kill something else.

[@fenix849]

Technically this is still just killing stuff, in a different way. We're just good at killing things but sometimes it works out.

[@gimmethegepgun]

Same deal with the eradication of smallpox. Humans are pretty good at working together to kill something.

[@Martin-di9pp]

Guess the reason that Cuba isn't free of them yet needs not be explained... 🤦‍♂

[@UltraGamma25]

THIS!

[@diegonaranjogelbert]

I work in Pacora, Panamá next to the fly factory. Every now and again they release flies from the factory and all the buildings around get completely infested with flies, at least they are sterile!

[@johnreese7973]

Are they still biting you and laying infertile eggs in your brain?

[@Sakerdot]

I was wondering this, are there upticks of human infections when this happens?

[@Bob_Adkins]

One got in my outdoor cat's cheek, but I noticed the swelling and hooked it out. It was a big fat maggot, was amazed it came out of such a small hole in his cheek. (southern USA)

[@rsamom]

I would have paid to see that video. 😂. A cat's cheek? Was that a five man job ?😂 My one cat is so wild you cannot hold him more than a minute 😂

[@michaelccozens]

Was this recent? Might be worth checking to see if you can make a report of the sighting to relevant authorities.

[@_DMNO_]

Yeah if that was recent I would try to get it reported so they can prevent screwworms from becoming a problem again

[@Bob_Adkins]

@@_DMNO_ It was many years ago, but you and Michael are right. Those parasites are awful, and must not get out of control.

[@chriswatts6629]

Sounds like a botfly larva

[@isJay]

Remember this the next time you hear a politician whinging about "we spent $XXX million on investigating insect sex?!" "what a waste!!" Lots of federal dollars are spent in weird ways to have impacts like this.

[@Defx10]

You've never been involved in politics before and it shows. As someone who has seen things from the inside, I can attest that these programs have massively overinflated budgets and that only a small percentage of that funding ever actually goes to the program. The rest goes into the pockets of politicians and their families. So yes, it IS wasteful spending, by design.

[@firstlast6085]

@@Defx10 So what do you want us to do, not study anything? Politicians are going to steal no matter what, you might as well have some of the money go to science.

[@DriveByGuy]

“Whinging” Cringe apex player is very cringe

[@DriveByGuy]

“Whinging” Cringe apex player is very cringe

[@Thai8521]

@@DriveByGuy What does Apex have to do with any of this?

[@indigofenix00]

Broke: Exterminating pests with insecticides Woke: Exterminating pests with natural predators Bespoke: Exterminating pests with sexual exhaustion

[@will7its]

By a screw worm even......lol

[@guydreamr]

Bloody brilliant comment.

[@archieil]

I know the idea of radiating flies from a 80s/90s documentary in a series with aggressive bees too ;-)... so, yeah, scientists in the past also were creating a fake dinosaurs from chickens for views and likes. maybe the panama cooperation is fresh but the idea is over 30 years.

[@victordelorientis8763]

Actually they still use insecticides and natural predators.. and also antiparasitics.

[@OpenCarryUSMC]

@@victordelorientis8763ya and DDT. A lot of countries including Panama still use DDT for mosquito abatement though it’s very expensive with the lenlightened” countries banning it. Which by the way kills MILLIONS of people.

[@jbird4478]

I googled COPEG and Google suggested I try "pictures of screwworms in humans". What the hell, Google?

[@fredinit]

Gotta love AI!

[@valdonchev7296]

Thanks for the warning. That sounds like the time I googled "Tryptophobia" and the top result was all the tryptophobia-triggering images Google has.

[@Enchie]

Google has decided what your nightmares will be tonight.

[@alienfromlhs1140b]

@@valdonchev7296trypophobia isn’t real

[@jamesowens7176]

They want to make sure you vote for congressmen who support the great worm wall 🙂

[@tofa_ki]

yea i live in panama and years ago we went to that worm factory for a school field trip, they showed us the worm food pudding and it smelled like shit

[@dynamicworlds1]

I bet!

[@analyticalhabitrails9857]

Yuck!6

[@edrichard6153]

Ok well you did the smell test. Did it also look like shit? If it did, Buddy I'm just thinking you should be able to skip the 3rd phase (taste test) and just go ahead and call it shit. Just a suggestion

[@harrysmith8338]

yea, putrefaction, is a fly's pudding.

[@rsamom]

​@@harrysmith8338😂😂

[@antgrantrant]

"the screw worms screw worms to screw screw worms" 10 points to Gryffindor for that one. Well done

[@frogbear02]

coulda said the screwworms screw screwworms to screw screwworms but yakno

[@Wheelking711]

This program is all cunning, points to Slytherin

[@mikeharrington5593]

An excellent example of what international collaboration can achieve, albeit on a regional scale.

[@Mynamewashere]

"The screwworms screw worms to screw screwworms." has gotta be one of my favorite HAI sentences.

[@lawrencecalablaster568]

The beginner’s version of the infamous “Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo”.

[@stylesrj]

@@lawrencecalablaster568 Don't forget the Police police Police police police police Police police...

[@Womcataclysm]

As someone who also occasionally drop 14.7M Worms on Panama. I can say part of the reason why is the fun of it. I don't think you need an explanation as to why might want to drop 14.7M worms on Panama.

[@jacobramirez4894]

E

[@adomas_skulda]

yep, its just fun way to spend your weekend.

[@colormedubious4747]

Why WOULDN'T you? 🤣

[@itsnotatoober]

😆

[@johnladuke6475]

I do something similar; I drop 14.7 million worms on Van Halen each week. It's a lot more difficult but way more rewarding - particularly since I make sure to nail both David Lee Roth _and_ Sammy Hagar.

[@TheLordUrban]

I don’t care what it takes we need to keep this project funded.

[@rawat2608]

First Isreal and then this

[@stephenjenkins7971]

Once again, the US footing the bill for foreign countries' issues. With zero gratitude for doing it. How long can the US continue throwing money to the benefit of other countries?

[@Trendsthismonth]

That is why so many people are moving north. They want to be worm free

[@MasterConduitCourses]

This shows that when a leader has vision that is truly beneficial to all, all get on board.

[@IvanIssaccs]

I love this. Intercontinental cooperation with a clear demonstrable cost to savings ratio that prevents suffering. Brings me a big smile.

[@chisaki703]

After having to nurse our dog out of being eaten alive by flies (we left him in a dog hotel for vacation and came back to a sick good boy with many flies sticking to his dirty bum) I got a mild trauma of flies so I think this worm wall is really a bless

[@jodibraun6383]

😢 Ugh. That's friggin' awful! Poor good boi.

[@epicpatrickyolo]

amazing, I wake up and see a video that milllions of worms are being dropped on my country what a way to start my day

[@thorskjelver8564]

Not only that, it's also somehow a good thing for everyone

[@ClashofAction]

Reality is stranger than fiction

[@TheOtherBill]

Pro Tip: Don't sleep outside with your mouth open.

[@OtakuUnitedStudio]

You're welcome!

[@baylinkdashyt]

We thank you for your assistance.

[@ErdTirdMans]

I'm going to need a correction for your annual video on that Gritty fact. He survived under the rubble of Veteran's Stadium for 14 years living off of bugs and sewer water. He didn't even need to drink sewer water he just liked the flavor more than tap

[@EEEEEEEE]

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[@alveolate]

dang, that's a gritty true story

[@BeeGuns]

These are the kinda details I think of when picturing an apocalyptic scenario. Who will keep the nuclear power plants safe, who will get power running again, who will airdrop 15 million neutered flies into Central America?

[@josephgoldsborough9138]

"what do you do for work?" oh i supply soldiers for the worm wall

[@spoulter5751]

Half as Interesting is the reason my family thinks I'm smart. I'm not smart; I just know a lot of surface-layer information about a wide range of topics. "Why do you know this?" they ask and the answer is always "KZbin 👍"

[@alexdrockhound9497]

The trick is when you learn enough surface layer stuff about enough topics to start connecting things, and be able to logically fill in a lot of the deeper level gaps in your knowledge.

[@QuantumHistorian]

Knowledge might not be intelligence, but it *is* the raw material for it. The more you know the more you're able to learn, understand, make connections, and arrive at (correct) inferences. So I don't know how smart OP is, but I'm guessing they're smarter than they think they are, and getting smarter still.

[@Michiganman800]

Basically, Reddit but less obnoxious

[@plushifoxed]

approximate knowledge of many things is just a fun way to live tbh

[@mistformsquirrel]

Big same.

[@DustinHaning]

There's been talk of doing something similar with the mosquito species the spread disease. Out of the hundreds of species of mosquitoes, only 30-something spread disease (I think?) There's a lot of environmental things to consider, but it could save millions of lives to eradicate the mosquitos that spread malaria.

[@FiredAndIced]

Yeah, the Wolbachia project in Singapore is the most famous project being undertaken to reduce the instances of dengue, Zika, chikugunya and yellow fever diseases. World Mosquito Programme is another international collaboration to introduce Wolbachia bacteria into the mosquito population. The Wolbachia bacteria, for some reason, is able to reduce the instances of Zika, chikugunya, yellow fever disease and dengue in mosquitoes without destroying their population. Over 50% of all insects today are laden with Wolbachia bacteria, and this bacteria is our ultimate shield against the abovementioned mosquito-borne diseases. So it's not like we "sterilize" the mosquito; we in fact "infect" them with this bacteria, so that they can get passed down from one generation to the other via the eggs.

[@4thdimensionalexplorer]

We have been doing a version for mosquitoes for nearly a decade now. We release a bunch of modified males that produce sterile offspring. It's pretty cool/ creepy as a concept

[@hedgehog3180]

@@FiredAndIced So basically we're fighting disease with another disease.

[@tomc.5704]

@@hedgehog3180 outcompete the disease with a friendlier disease

[@sidneyvandykeii3169]

​@hedgehog3180 Like in the movie World War Z.

[@ryansearle6157]

That moment when “COPEG” is an acronym for something that doesn’t even have a “G” in it

[@hsngm33]

i assume the spanish one does

[@Jdgoldf]

@@hsngm33it does! Comisión Panamá-Estados Unidos para la Erradicación y Prevención del Gusano Barrenador del Ganado

[@MrLuc420]

The Spanish version doesn't have just one, but 2 g's. Honestly that acronym just makes no sense. Estados Unidos para la Erradicación y Prevención del Gusano Barrenador del Ganado

[@NotFunctional-ever]

It's just that cool

[@hedgehog3180]

They're just incredibly tired of current memes.

[@james_bond1869]

This is so cool. My uncle used to fly a prop plane that did this, and he told me about it when i was really young, but I didn't realize what it was for until now!

[@thisherehandleIdospout]

I love how Sam just casually drops the term 'Darién' in the video at least twice, and doesn't even bother to hang a lantern on it, since he knows we're all such huge nerds that we either already know what the Darién Gap is, or that we'll go on a Google-search frenzy to find out 😂 ...Personally, I did *BOTH* 🤓

[@iandavidvillaloboswong5180]

Huh I occassionaly see it on the news here in Panama. Never knew how it worked. If I see a donut hole in the ground I'll eat it for my daily dose of antibiotics

[@valentinmitterbauer4196]

In my country, there would be immediately a conspiracy theory that this program is actually a cover-up to spread decease or something like that. Then a populist politican would profit off of that, by claiming to defund the "decease-worm-dropping-program" and when he gets elected, he does so. Then the real danger, the screwworms, will mess up our agricultural economy and people would see the infected people and livestock and would go: "This is the doing of the evil decease-worm-dropping-program! Good thing we got rid of that!"

[@ethanzhang1604]

Bro 💀

[@darkwinter7395]

Anti-parasitic, not antibiotic. It won't help you with an infection.

[@bootblacking]

1) Not an antibiotic, as previously said by someone else 2) Do not take a daily antibiotic without medical supervision, using them incorrectly is how we're getting super germs 3) Please, just go to the corner store and buy a donut instead

[@bootblacking]

Now I want donuts

[@dougearnest7590]

I had never heard of this until a couple of years ago when I had a chance meeting with a fellow aviation enthusiast in a museum. He is one of the pilots. Fascinating stuff.

[@maythesciencebewithyou]

So the eliminating mosquitos with infertile males idea is much older and has been in use for years to eliminate flies? And people were making a big deal about doing the same with mosquitos.

[@Pixl8dwhmsy]

Well, 😅 Bill Gates.😅 🦟

[@aliensinnoh1]

I NEED them to do this with mosquitos, as someone who has a phobia of EEE and West Nile Virus.

[@M33f3r]

Yeah gates being super into depopulation of humans makes even the best intentions he has had sus

[@kylepessell1350]

The only reason it works so well on the screwflies is because they only mate once in a lifetime which means if they miss their chance they are 'screwed'. For most species of mosquitos this is not the case so even on top of the wider range, greater population, and more distinct species to deal with. You'd have to make peace with the fact that you'll only lessen their numbers not eradicate them.

[@LachskoenigIV]

These ones were merely radiated. With mosquitos they want to change their genome.

[@rashadb954]

One of the best examples of 'if we do our job right, no one will even notice'. It's refreshing to learn about truly effective and benevolent government spending, thanks for sharing!

[@stephenjenkins7971]

US has a lot of these projects. Throwing billions at foreign countries without comment or gratitude. Any wonder then, that isolationism is growing?

[@kevinmosser5969]

You’d think they’d work a deal with South American countries and get rid of them everywhere and then just keep patching small outbreaks if they happen ever

[@jamesvandemark2086]

Our Panamanian nephew flew these missions at one time. Good job!

[@mimikyoo]

Ok I love the visual of the USDA logo being vigorously swept over the Florida Keys like an eraser in ms paint

[@Westwoodshadowgaming]

As someone who lives near that region i am VERY happy about this screw worm prevention. I looked up some pics and.... omg. You should not look up pics...

[@peterboshoff6376]

This illustrates the importance of big government, tax-funded, centralized operations. If this was all left to the private sector, no maggots would be stopped, you would be paying for maggot insurance forever and they would ask you if you had any preexisting maggots.

[@Samuel-ym8wz]

Thats a crazy game of Risk, i also set up my border in the game there too.

[@EayuProuxm]

The craziest day in an animal's life is probably a horseshoe crab being abducted by essentially aliens, being drained of blood along with thousands of your comrades and then being returned. It's close competition with these flies.

[@nisc2001]

i gotta know what the context behind that is, how are the horseshoe crabs staying alive??

[@themenacingpenguin.7152]

@@nisc2001 the horseshoe crabs have special blood that can be used to make medicine, it doesn't bode well for their survival however in this instance. Turns out being released back into the wild with some serious blood loss isn't the best survival situation.

[@nisc2001]

@@themenacingpenguin.7152 why return them then xD

[@OtakuUnitedStudio]

​@@nisc2001 Because at least some, if not most, will survive.

[@OtakuUnitedStudio]

​@@themenacingpenguin.7152 Most of the time they only take a safe amount from each animal because they're so damn widespread that there's enough to go around for everyone. Mishaps happen, and some of them do die, but most survive.

[@lanzsibelius]

I like how Sam called "Baja California Norte" that way despite it not being it's official name, but one that makes perfect sense, even we mexicans call it that way.

[@doomsdayrabbit4398]

East Virginia.

[@NYKevin100]

@@doomsdayrabbit4398 There was an actual town called East, West Virginia. Its Wikipedia article is comically short.

[@Distress.]

Wait that's not its name?!

[@macajr]

I live there and I don't call it that

[@trla6505]

@@Distress. is just baja california,

[@jscheunemann]

4:35 the federal Doughnut Budget is what they call the federal money for local police departments

[@henrybutchy3242]

Local radio show used to play a listener game called: "Cop / No Cop". Listener would guess yes or no, and DJs called a random donut shop and asked: is there a Cop there?

[@dillondoherty4307]

That sounds kinda funny and also entertaining but probably not for the cop at the donut shop peacefully enjoying his doughnuts

[@TheJoeWhoSoldTheWorld]

"Why the US Drops 14.7 Million Worms On Panama Every Week" because its fuckin funny lol

[@twistedpixel756]

Florida has done the same with mosquitos. Releasing a ton of the pests genetically modified to be unable to reproduce.

[@scottdavis3860]

dropping this video at lunch is perfect timing

[@Alex-js5lg]

Mmm, worms and dirt.

[@Catalyst8487]

Watched this while eating breakfast. Great video, would do again.

[@morbidsearch]

Watching this while eating a biscuit (That's cookie for you heathens)

[@ChristopherPuzey]

Breakfast*

[@nobodynoonenowhere5609]

So Mexico really did pay for the Wall!😂😂

[@Brasswatchman]

Yeah, back in the 1950's. But we've moved on.

[@phlogistanjones2722]

THIS is what government SHOULD be doing. Sadly it seems much more interested in keeping bureaucrats "in charge" than "servants helping the citizenry". Peaceful Skies.

[@stevenschnepp576]

The legislature reflects the electorate.

[@Brasswatchman]

You mean... bureaucrats like the ones who organized and implemented this entire program?

[@stephenjenkins7971]

This is literally what the government is doing, clown

[@energypull6847]

That’s not true. Tons of folks are in our government now doing this exact work to prevent this and other outbreaks in pests and diseases in the U.S. they aren’t featured on the news, but all are at threat because people aren’t aware of what people in public service are delivering every day.

[@solortus]

All this time we were fighting a secret war against worms. I wonder whatever secret war we're fighting

[@Rahul.Quotient]

"Screw-worms screw worms to screw screw-worms" Poetic, indeed.

[@matthewmaylin2268]

Medium risk farms are assessed 6 monthly (as shown on screen in the video) not 4 monthly as spoken at 4:57

[@ghost_curse]

1:23 Now hold on a minute, we don't actually know if Gritty is warm blooded

[@TheNthbeach]

Australia uses a similar methodology to control fruit fly, which can significantly harm our fruit growing areas.

[@maverick9708]

3:22 FR where does the G come from!!!! bacronyms lifting heavy af 😂😂😂😂

[@bradbrad9561]

Fun fact: This program only eradicated one species of screwworm. There are several other species but they are not nearly as damaging to livestock.

[@chicorulez]

This is so cool. We study this technique in vet school in Brazil, in Parasitology, but I didn't know some of those details. It makes me wonder if the technique not being used in South America is a technical challenge, a diplomatic challenge, or a deliberate action from the US to keep cattle farming in South America more difficult. 🤔

[@adaroben1104]

All of the above?

[@lucyk.5163]

Brazil is a big, blessed, self-sufficient country. Y'all got everything the US has, minus the tornadoes and earthquakes and snowstorms. If y'all weren't so corrupt, lazy, averse to proper Education, and stopped re-electing idiots like Lula and Dilma who keep sending millions and millions of your money to leeching communist countries and to their personal offshore bank accounts, instead of investing in Education, Arts, Science and Infrastructure; perhaps you could do your own screwworm extermination program instead of blaming the US for "keeping cattle farming in South America more difficult"😑😑😑

[@clayxros576]

Id wager its diplomatic, since Brazil has a massive hate boner for any big power doing stuff in their country. To the point theyre burning the Amazon out of spite.

[@sherilynn1310]

Is it something other countries can't set up? A chunk of something radioactive, a decently funded facility, some starter flies and blood pudding, some airplanes and paper bags or boxes. I'm not sure this is something the U.S. is withholding. We raised fruit flies in elementary school as a learning experience. It's much easier than raising a calf....

[@stigcc]

The technology is open for everyone to use. Why should the US be involved in solving your problems?

[@cero13991]

Perfect timing, just got food and needed sth to watch

[@thesauceman209]

real

[@Quwertyn007]

Screwworms always get my appetite up

[@spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace]

lol im watching this at midnight

[@dave8323]

If you "need" something to watch as you eat, and then feel compelled to tell strangers on the internet this information, then this is really pathetic, and I hope you manage to turn your life around

[@CaseNumber00]

Reminds me of a Tom Sctott video when he visited a facility that bred and released sterilize mosquitos in SoCal.

[@EphemeralPseudonym]

Wait is that why I don't really have to deal with mosquitoes that much despite the conditions I live in and how attractive I am to them? Nice

[@RossTheBossTrotter]

BUILD THE WORM WALL, and make the screw-worms pay for it!!!

[@koboldcatgirl]

see it's funny because the Worm Wall is actually a great example of how important our alliance with Mexico is for us

[@_ikako_]

"what do you do for a living?" "Oh I'm a factory worker" "Neat, what do you guys make?" "Flies"

[@Katie-qh2dq]

I was there in a study abroad with my university a couple years ago! This is such a cool example of a bunch of different groups working together for a common (if very gross) goal (seriously you cannot imagine the smell)! So trippy so see you cover it, and you did a great job!

[@math925]

Your editors did a fantastic job. The slushie was an amazing touch.

[@Maserati7200]

I was distracted by the dancing clown.

[@reel1tv587]

We complain about the government so much in all honesty we really have no idea what they are doing to protect us.

[@pierzing.glint1sh76]

Why don't they also do it for Healthcare????

[@jemmerl]

@@pierzing.glint1sh76 One could jokingly argue preventing flies from burrowing into your living flesh is a form of healthcare lmao

[@pierzing.glint1sh76]

@jemmerllast8492 Put it this way The job of the government is to support and protect the people. Unfortunately it also protects and helps those people who exploit other people Eg health insurance companies, big tech, big tobacco etc "We the people" doesnt just mean the little guy

[@reel1tv587]

@@pierzing.glint1sh76 I get free health care. If I do pay it's only 4 dollars I've been getting it for 5 years now

[@khanhnguyen-tt3ff]

Let be honest we lucky we are even allow to complain about the government some country will arrest and send you to jail, even the USA have a time where they deport people that are again the government policy (the red scare lol I think most people would be deported or exile if the USA still have policy of the red scare)

[@parthenocarpySA]

Working a bug farm was one of the most interesting experiences I've had. I highly recommend it for anyone curious who doesn't mind getting a bit dirty

[@thebloodyenglish6620]

Bro really experienced their horrors as a kid and went never again 🤣 Wakking down the path of vengeance for the rest of his life 🤣

[@walpoleandworcester]

They make my skin crawl looking at them! Thanks for this one Sam!

[@JoeRitze]

How is this HALF as interesting?!? I'm all in!

[@reckoner1913]

Just discovered worms is another word in the great English English vs American English...thing. Those would definitely be larvae or maggots in the UK. Here, worms live in the ground, the ocean, as parasites or on Arrakis, not as baby flies.

[@everythingmatters6308]

They are called maggots and larvae in the states. This video sounds incorrect by calling them worms. Maybe it's an old timer thing.

[@5467nick]

@@everythingmatters6308 Fly larvae that doesn't infest the bodies of people or animals are often called maggots (such as common house flies). Fly larvae that does infest the bodies of people or animals are often called worms (such as screw worms). Like anything else, it varies for different species of the flies and from region to region, but it is not unusual to refer to many types of parasitic larvae as worms even in the USA. Some people distinguish these larvae from worms in the ground by referring to those as earthworms.

[@Alex-zw7sr]

So you're saying Mexico did pay for a wall after all @6:14

[@israellai]

The moment you showed the larvae, the viewers started dropping like flies (from planes)

[@BrownFoxWarrior]

So we're screwing screwworms by screwing them together so they can't screw-off in North America?

[@forzer456]

Some would say they are screwed

[@Snp2024]

Screwception

[@bwhog]

We're screwing screwworms be getting screwed screwworms to screw screwworms.

[@punbug4721]

They screw each other, but then they realize they're screwed. Not because they screwed each other, but because we screwed them over before they could screw each other. So now their screwing is screwed.

[@JulianFischerJulesBarner]

Irradiated, air dropped maggots? Spiderverse has gone off the rails 😂

[@ForumArcade]

This is an interesting project, for sure. But with any large-scale ecological upset, it is important that we remain aware of the potential downsides. How removing these parasites affects ecosystems in unintended ways, not all of which are beneficial.

[@BeeGuns]

Hasn’t a similar idea been proposed for eradicating mosquitos?

[@RCLights0ff]

You said the worms could kill any warm-blooded mammal, which means they can’t actually kill Gritty because his blood runs ice cold.

[@skylineXpert]

Wasnt surprised at all. As some say: it reminds them of singapores mosquito video...

[@TheGiggleMasterP]

So its not chem trails we're seeing, it's fly larvae?? 🎉

[@Pixl8dwhmsy]

No, it’s both.

[@kenetickups6146]

@@Pixl8dwhmsy no such thing as cgemtrails

[@Oudeis000]

The Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) is being used with Aedes aegypti, the mosquito that transmits West Nile virus, Zika, dengue fever, etc., but according to some KZbin videos, the reception of the irradiated mosquitoes has been chilly in Florida, where they are viewed with great suspicion. I hope the program is successful given the inefficacy of most other countermeasures.

[@ant7723]

The guy hates screw worms so much he decided to erase their whole species 💀

[@mundzine]

This isn't half as interesting this is actually interesting

[@mrstudent9125]

Reminds me of Singapore mosquitos video.

[@Stratelier]

Or the California fruit flies video.

[@FiredAndIced]

The Wolbachia bacteria, for some reason, is able to reduce the instances of Zika, chikugunya, yellow fever disease and dengue in mosquitoes without destroying their population. Over 50% of all insects today are laden with Wolbachia bacteria, and this bacteria is our ultimate shield against the abovementioned mosquito-borne diseases. So it's not like we "sterilize" the mosquito; we in fact "infect" them with this bacteria, so that they can get passed down from one generation to the other via the eggs.

[@marcusmoonstein242]

"So, what do you do for a living?" "Um, it's a bit complicated."

[@nevermindthegermans6242]

I screw screw worms by screwing screw worms with screwy screw worms.

[@GizzyDillespee]

"You know the truck that spreads road salt after a snow storm? It's like that, but instead of a truck, it's an airplane, and instead of salt, it's worms."

[@matthewcarroll2533]

Everyone tends to unite under their shared hatred of flying, annoying insects. lol

[@smokedbrisket3033]

They're not worms, they're maggots. As far as I know, they're the only maggots that feed on live flesh. Use your google-fu and look for pictures of livestock infested with them. You'll have nightmares for years.

[@NoName-zn1sb]

Music bed's a little loud, eh?