A Brief Statistical Review of the United States-Mexico Screw-Worm Eradication Program

Abstract

The first experiments which showed that native populations of the screw-worm fly, Cochliomyia hominivorax (Coquerel), could be reduced under practical field conditions through the release of laboratory-reared sterilized (irradiated) flies were made on Sanibel and adjacent islands off the coast of Florida in 1952–53 by one of us (G.W.E.) and co-workers (unpublished data). The first actual eradication of the fly was accomplished on the island of Curacao some 64 km off the coast of Venezuela (Baumhover et al. 1955). A more impressive demonstration of the effectiveness of the sterile-male technique was the eradication of the screw-worm fly from the southeastern United States (Knipling 1960, Baumhover 1966). A review of these programs as well as a report on the eradication program in the southwestern United States and Mexico during 1962–65 (Baumhover 1966) included statistics concerning numbers of flies released, screw-worm cases, program costs, losses caused by the fly, and savings resulting from the program's operation. The most recent review of the status of the screw-worm eradication program in the southwest and Mexico was given by Hightower (1970). Our paper deals mainly with areas of infestations, screwworm cases reported, and the numbers of sterile flies released in the United States and Mexico during 1962 through 1969.