I wonder if anyone ever did the math on whether trying to maintain a barrier at the Darian Gap with occasional failures was really a better financial choice than teaming up with South American countries to drive screwworms to extinction.

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AlotOfReading 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Yes, they did because various countries have talked to the US about expanding it. The problem is that South America is an enormous place, whereas Panama is a narrow isthmus. It could have been done with some amount of money, but that opportunity ended in 2010 at the latest.

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moffkalast an hour ago | parent | next [-]

In the end though, history will see it as a half measure where they really shouldn't have half assed it. It only took one moron to defund the project and all of it will come streaming back.

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cogman10 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

[deleted for being misinformation]

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aeontech 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Hmm, that seems to contradict the article directly - insecticides were used to try to battle screwworm initially and were not really effective - the solution was using sterile male flies to stop reproduction - which would work in South America just as well as it did in North (with sufficient scale)

	▲	cogman10 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		You and the article are correct so I erased my comment. I found and read through some of the reports of the time to try and prove myself correct. I'm wrong. https://www.nal.usda.gov/exhibits/speccoll/exhibits/show/sto...

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consensus1 an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

I think the issue is that you would have to push the barrier across the entire South American continent, which is twice the distance of the US-Mexico border and also crosses the Amazon where there is basically no infrastructure.