• Tollana1234567@lemmy.today
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    3 hours ago

    doubtful you can eradicate the species since the cows are still present, also screworms dont need to use cows, it can be almost any mammal it can get its eggs on.

    • Lvxferre [he/him]@mander.xyz
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      2 hours ago

      The species actually got eradicated from both Mexico and USA, using sterile males, and almost eradicated from the southern tip of North America aka Central America.

      So yes, it is possible. Regardless of presence or absence of cows. Because, like I already said and you repeated, they can infest any mammal.

      The reason they stopped at Panama is simply because it’s a chokepoint; in the short term it’s cheaper to keep releasing sterile males in the Darién gap than to push further. It works until it doesn’t, like another poster highlighted once they stopped doing it in COVID times the flies re-invaded NA.

      I’m criticising governments in the Americas (including but not exclusively USA) for not co-ordinating and pushing further, to get it extinct.