A U.S.-funded nuclear project to zap a killer fly into extinction is saving West Africa's cows

[yortsed snacilbuper]

NDOYENNE, Senegal — The Senegalese farmer is certain: Atomic birth control saved his cows.

Arouna Sow, 55, worried his family would starve when the animals got sick three years ago. Their eyes grew teary, their fur clumped off, their ribs poked out, their milk dried up — all because of the tsetse fly’s toxic bite, which kills an estimated 3 million livestock annually in sub-Saharan Africa.

Farmers here used to count on losing pounds of valuable beef to the fingernail-size pest. Then veterinarians in the West African country teamed up with researchers in Austria, who work on a little-known project funded entirely by the United States.

“I can feed my kids and afford health insurance,” said Sow, a father of 15. “I don’t understand the science, but I know it’s working.”

Senegal, a former French colony hugging the Atlantic Ocean, has sought to wipe out the bloodsucking disease spreaders for more than a decade. Farmers say relief has finally arrived in the country’s western Niayes zone, where scientists have eradicated 99 percent of tsetse flies by sterilizing the males with gamma rays.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/a-us-funded-nuclear-project-to-zap-a-killer-fly-into-extinction-is-saving-west-africas-cows/2019/05/31/12f92626-7713-11e9-a7bf-c8a43b84ee31_story.html?wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1

[Scurrilous]

1. K&R

[Codeine]

2. Now come do it to the fucking Argentine ants

taking over California. Hate those smelly little fuckers.

[Control-Z]

3. What are fucking Argentine ants?

Do they actually smell? Are they any different than the little fuckers that invade my house and eat my cat's food in the summer. They're smaller than most ants but man, can they bite.

[Codeine]

4. Little black ants from South America.

They’re an invasive species here; they’ve formed a supercolony that stretches from San Diego to San Francisco, and they’ve outcompeted our native ants. They come in for water, pet food, or any packaged food product they can get to.

They definitely smell; I can usually tell when they’ve mounted a big invasion of the house before I find them. On the plus side they don’t bite.

[Brother Buzz]

9. Argentine ants are running roughshod over honey bees in California

Honey bees are simply unable to defend the hives when they invade. I don't know about the biting, but some beekeepers say the damned ants are to big to bite, and to small to sting.

Beekeepers have taken to treating their yard with shit that is actually illegal to use in California.

When they invade our house, we treat them with ant chalk, another illegal product I buy from an Asian market. Because it's illegal and not on display, you have to ask for it, and Boy howdy does it work well (and a whole lot easier than messing with boric acid).

[csziggy]

6. Or the damned fire ants that have invaded the South east!

Those suckers are taking over and their bites hurt like hell. Plus on me they leave nasty pustules that last for weeks.

[Codeine]

7. Oh fuck that.

Fire ants have started to make their way into my part of California; if I see even one I’m getting a fucking flamethrower.

[csziggy]

8. That won't do any good - their nests go way underground

One way to kill them is to pour gasoline down the holes and set it on fire. If the gas fumes don't kill them, the flame and oxygen deprivation will! NOTE: I do NOT advise this method - too much chance on burning more than you want.

I used to think that starting ant wars would deplete them - take a shovel from one ant hill, dump it on another, one from that hill, go to the next, etc. But now it is proven that their colonies can cover acres of land so you're just moving workers from one part of the same colony to another.

These guys make aluminum molds of the fire ant mounds - pretty neat art and it kills the nest:

[TexasBushwhacker]

5. Science is cool! N/t

[SamKnause]

10. ...father of 15....

[burrowowl]

11. Cool!

How to recycle your aluminum cans!

[Karadeniz]

12. So glad Trump didn't get a chance to defund that project!