Sterile flies vs. the screwworm

Grade level
Time
25 minutes
Start the lessonPrint the worksheetTeacher guide
Time
35 minutes
Start the lessonPrint the worksheetTeacher guide
Time
40 minutes
Start the lessonPrint the worksheetTeacher guide
A sterile screwworm fly on the window of a plane flying over Texas near the Mexico border
Sources
  1. Edward F. Knipling, USDA, Golden Goose Award profile, 2016
  2. Roy Melvin and Raymond C. Bushland, USDA, 1936 and 1940, as described in Baumhover, 2002
  3. USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, with the Texas Animal Health Commission, USDA, June 3, 2026 and June 5, 2026
  4. COPEG, run jointly by USDA and Panama’s Ministry of Agriculture Development, USDA sterile fly production page
  5. R. Henry, Emerging Infectious Diseases, 2019
  6. USDA National Agricultural Library, “STOP Screwworms” exhibit
  7. USDA APHIS, Animal Health Officials Respond to Second Detection of New World Screwworm in the United States, June 5, 2026
  8. USDA APHIS, New World screwworm, Using sterile insect technique, Sterile fly production and dispersal, Screwworm.gov and Current status
  9. Vision and Change core concepts and competencies, as summarized in Brownell and others, CBE Life Sciences Education, 2014
  10. Word origins from Dictionary.com: eradicate, radical, radish, radicle, voracious, carnivore, Homo sapiens
  11. Spanish and French words from Wiktionary: eradicate, radix