Some Science from Wolf Worm: The Eradication of Screwworms from North America

Just finished Wolf Worm last night (so good!) and would love to take a minute to geek out a bit about screwworms, specifically the effort to eradicate them from North America and their recent reemergence.

Vernon discusses the story briefly in her Acknowledgements. For people who want to learn more, I highly recommend this article from the Golden Goose Awards: https://www.goldengooseaward.org/01awardees/screwworms

TL;DR Their eradication was a monumental triumph of entomology science estimated to save the U.S. cattle industry billions of dollars. The research that was central to its success had been ruthlessly targeted by politicians who like to mock scientific studies that sound silly so that can rant about "government waste." And, yeah, "the sex life of a screwworm fly" does sound silly but we needed to understand how they reproduced in order to realize that sterile male release could work.

Part two

Also in the section of the Acknowledgements on the screwworm, Vernon ends with "I am Cassandra, not an ambulance chaser" and **wow** was she ever. That was written June 2025. **August 4, 2025**, so at most, just weeks if not days later, the CDC confirmed a case of a screwworm in a person in Maryland. Luckily for Maryland, this case had been contracted while traveling, but still, **wow.**