The return of the screwworm parasite to the U.S. has some politicians trying to figure out who to blame. The fly larvae feed on living flesh, posing a threat to cattle and livestock. Democrats blame spending cuts and fewer inspectors at the USDA. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump's Agriculture secretary says the flies left their containment zone in Panama under former President Joe Biden's administration and moved north through lax immigration enforcement. Scientists say the return was inevitable due to a slowed eradication campaign and the warming planet. The USDA plans to spend over $1 billion to combat the pest, including producing sterile flies to control the population.
Scientists have unearthed marine communities thriving on a millions-year-old whale graveyard. These graveyards form when whale carcasses fall to the sea floor, becoming a sustaining snack for nearby critters. Researchers used a submersible to explore the remains in the southeastern Indian Ocean and found bones dating back 5.3 million years, as well as living creatures like jellyfish and tubeworms. The researchers say many factors likely conspired to preserve the bones, including the bones' high density, their location deep underwater and a special coating of minerals. The new study was published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
Three more cases of the New World screwworm have been confirmed, including one outside Texas, demonstrating the difficulty of stopping a pest that could potentially devastate the nation’s cattle industry. The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Monday the new cases were found in a dog from New Mexico and hundreds of miles away in a goat and calf in Texas. The screwworm is actually a fly, which produces a larva that eats live flesh instead of dead material. Females lay their eggs in open wounds any any warm-blooded animal such as cattle, but wildlife, pets and occasionally even humans can be infested. Before it was irradicated in the 1960s, the fly was an annual warm-weather scourge of cattle ranchers.
Scientists have identified a group of worker honeybees that are specially adapted to build their queen’s home within the hive. Worker bees perform a myriad of jobs to keep up the hive and care for the queen, who lays all the eggs. It was long thought a diet of royal jelly was key to becoming queen. A new study suggests the queen's environment may also play a role. It found that the specialized worker bees responsible for crafting the queen’s home are younger and effectively run a fever to help melt and blend special chemicals into the wax. The study's findings were published Wednesday in the journal Nature.