The Screwworm Cochliomyia Hominivorax (Diptera: Calliphoridae) Reinfests The Island Of CuraÇAo, Netherlands Antilles

Abstract

In 1954, before the sterile insect technique was used to eradicate screwworms Cochliomyia hominivorax (Coquerel) from Florida and the southeastern United States, the concept was tested on the 440-km² island of Curaçao. The island had long had a screwworm problem, and B. A. Bitter, then with the Veterinary Service, requested advice from the U. S. Department of Agriculture on how to deal with it. Since the Department needed a small isolated location to test the then unproved sterile insect technique and island authorities agreed to cooperate, the experiment was begun on 17 March 1954 (Baumhover, Graham, Bitter, Hopkins, New, Dudley & Bushland, 1955, J. Econ. Entomol. 48: 462–66), The effort was quickly successful. The last screwworm egg mass was collected on 11 November 1954, and the first unequivocal eradication of an established insect with the sterile male technique was accomplished.