Thread by @sarahzhang

In 2016, I was writing about the return of flesh-eating screwworms in Florida, when I learned about a U.S. government program that sounded totally bonkers

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theatlantic.com/science/archiv…

Screwworms were eradicated from the U.S. decades ago. But how?

In the 1950s, the U.S. began growing millions of screwworms in a factory, sterilizing them with radiation, and dropping them out of planes

And this still happens today! Everyday!

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theatlantic.com/science/archiv…

Every week, planes drop millions of sterilized screwworms over the border of Panama and Colombia, creating a transcontinental "barrier" to the pests far, far away from the U.S.

Here's one of the planes getting loaded with chilled boxes of adult screwworms:

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It’s not just planes.

Screwworm inspectors also travel by boat, motorcycle, ATV, and horse to look for infections in places too remote to have roads.

This is what our boat journey to one small town with an inspection office was like

The USDA has an incredible archive documenting the history of this program. Here are the scientists who came up with the "idiotic insect-sex scheme" (their words) inspecting ground meat.

(The thing about rearing a pest that eats flesh is...you need to feed them flesh.)

This is screwworm rearing looks like today.

The screwworms are the little white worms. The brown stuff is their food. Scientists have since figured out screwworms can also live on a mix of powdered blood, egg, and milk.

The diet, I'm sorry to say, still smells awful. I couldn't help but think of "bloody tampon," a phrase which has now appeared for the 1st time in The Atlantic.

With that, please do read this gross, fascinating story that is unexpectedly resonant now: theatlantic.com/science/archiv…

For more ~behind the scenes~ here's a thread from the screwworm archives

https://twitter.com/sarahzhang/status/1265374077134557185