Comment

Comment on Fafo

When you see an animal, there’s likely a bunch of the same species you didn’t see. Specially if it’s a small animal, with a fast lifecycle, and the animal burrows itself into something (like, dunno… the flesh of another animal?). And if the animal can live pretty much anywhere there’s another, warm-blooded, animal living. (Livestock? Wild fauna? Pets? Humans? Yes.)

So a dozen cases isn’t just “a dozen cases”, there’s likely millions of those flies in USA already. I’m taking a wild guess here and say a billion dollars won’t even scratch the surface of the problem there.

(Not that it changes things for me. Here in South America the fly in question goes from “present” to “present”. Just businesses as usual.)

source

Sort:hotnew top

AlligatorBlizzard@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
So how nasty are these things to humans? They seem like body horror nightmare fuel.

(I think I live far enough north to not have to worry about them but thinking about them still makes me a bit queasy.)

source
- lvxferre@mander.xyz ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  In general humans are the least concern. We’re smart enough to know something is wrong with our bodies, and fix it before it gets worse; we wear clothes and bandage wounds so there’s less exposure of vulnerable areas; etc. It’s a bit more concerning because of children, since the flies can attack eyes and mouths, but as long as the parents actually do their job and take care of the kid, no issue. (Bug repellent, pay attention to small wounds, regular visits to the doc, this kind of stuff.)
  
  Dogs and cats are another can of worms (or maggots). Specially urban strays; if anyone here wants some nightmare fuel, websearch images for [NSFL] miíase cachorro or miasis perro [/NSFL], apparently the flies (it isn’t just C. hominivorax) responsible for this sort of infestation will lay multiple eggs in the same wound, if they can. Same deal with the fauna.
  
  source
  - Rubanski@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    I should not have googled that, I should not have googled that…
    
    source
    Fluke@feddit.uk ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    Nope. Leaving that one alone. Not today.
    
    source
    lvxferre@mander.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    Well, I told you guys it’s NSFL.
    
    source
- Tollana1234567@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  if you are infirmed, or unable to move its a problem for those people.
  
  source
Scirocco@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
I agree that “a” billion isn’t even gonna start to cover it.

Will it even EVER be controlled down to Panama again?

It will take many years.

source
- sudo@programming.dev ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  It was pushed back down to panama before but it took half a century (1950-2000) to do it. All that effort undone by some kid named big balls.
  
  source
- Tollana1234567@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  and many breeding facilities as well.
  
  source
- lvxferre@mander.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  IMO controlling it “down to Panama” is part of what went wrong, I think. Pushing further into South America would’ve been costlier, but if people managed to get those flies completely extinct, the problem wouldn’t come back.
  
  But that requires multiple governments working together with a “helping them out means less problems for me in the future” mindset, and that simply doesn’t roll with USA; USA’s external policy was always ~~“I’m shirring my panrs so othurrs smell ir”~~ “I’m shitting my pants so others smell it”. And working together with a bunch of dictatorships can be a bit hard, specially when those dictatorships were supported by USA so they can’t trust the United-Statian government to die properly.
  
  source
  - Tollana1234567@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ 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.
    
    source
    lvxferre@mander.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ 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. I’m criticising governments in the Americas (including but not exclusively USA) for not coördinating and pushing further, to get it extinct.
    
    source