Pest Species

New World Screwworm

Cochliomyia hominivorax
New World Screwworm

Libya

Control Measure

Synopsis

  • In 1988 the New World screwworm was found in Libya and posed a significant threat to livestock and wildlife in Africa and the Mediterranean regions.
  • The infested area was 25,000 square kilometers.
  • Sterile insects from the Mexico-US screwworm rearing plant were shipped weekly and released in the infested area beginning in 1990.
  • 1300 million insects were transported in total.
  • In April 1991 the invasive screwworm had been eliminated.

Learn More

The New World Screwworm Eradication Programme. North Africa 1988-1992

Food and Agriculture Organization,  FAO,  1992.
This book documents a programme which was unusual in several respects. The campaign to eradicate the New World screwworm from North Africa was unusually large in financial terms. At the same time it was unusually short. Era dica tion itself took about six months, although it was ...

Eradication of the screwworm from Libya using the sterile insect technique

M. Vargas-Terán, B. S. Hursey and E. P. Cunningham,  Parasitology Today,  10:119-122. 1994.
The introduction in 1988 of the New World screwworrn into Libya presented a serious threat to the livestock and wildlife sectors of the African continent Mediterranean and the region. In this article, MoisPs Vargas-Terin, Brian 8. Hursey and Edward P. Cunningham describe the ...