Screwed: World’s Most Evil Worm Invades Yemen
Thu, May 8, 2008
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Screw Worm Larvae. Image by the US department of agriculture.
Up until now the list of worms that has made men curse with fear has pretty much been limited to tape worms.
Well…add another one to that list: the screw worm.
Like something out of a horror movie, screw worm females go after the bare flesh, laying 250-300 eggs in a host. When you feel that itch, whatever you do, don’t scratch it. The reason why they’re called screw worms is that the maggots will only burrow deeper, causing tissue damage and even death.
Ok, so you might be thinking this environmental blog is exaggerating things a bit, right? Wrong.
Once hatched, the maggots feed off the live flesh and fall down to the ground, where they pupate. The pupae reach adulthood 7 days later. They can then mate and lay over 4,000 eggs. They can also fly 125 miles, bringing their offspring and the plague inland.
Yemen, which has experienced a huge coastal outbreak of the evil screw worm is desperate for international aid. A Ministerial delegation was at the IAEA in Vienna, Austria, to seek emergency assistance to fight the evil worm.
However in Yemen, humans being affected by the pests is not the biggest problem. The vast majority who turn into “living hosts” are usually very young, old or infirm. The main problem is livestock.
“There are about 20,000 cases of livestock affected. Most of these are sheep and goats,” says Mansoor AlQadasi, General Director of the Central Veterinarian Laboratory. With increasing food costs, and mouths to feed, this is a huge problem that threatens the traditional way of life.
It is hoped that like the outbreak in Libya in 1988, the international community will give aid and help eradicate the insects. One possible approach that worked successfully in Libya and South America is effectively to turn the insects against themselves: birth control on a massive scale. The approach entails using radiation to breed hundreds of thousands of sterile male screw worms, and reintroducing them into the wild.
If aid can be generated we might be able to screw over the screw worm, before they screw us.
By the way, if you want to see some seriosly gross pics, try this link here. We warn you, its not for the faint hearted.
Via International Atomic Agency Press Release
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A Brand New Reason Why Animal Agriculture Sucks | Vegan.com Says:
May 9th, 2008 at 5:47 am[...] new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!So over on Digg I saw this post about a horrible new parasite, the sort of parasite that might make one reminisce fondly over tape [...]
May 8th, 2008 at 8:36 pm
Hahahahaha, served them right. Fucking A-rabs
May 8th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
Wow that’s pretty crazy. God willing, Yemen will get the aid to fight off these worms.
May 8th, 2008 at 10:56 pm
What a disgusting comment. It is people like yourself, whose hearts are consumed with hatred and lacking in empathy, that makes this world of ours such a bad place. You should be ashamed of yourself.
May 8th, 2008 at 11:22 pm
Yummy!
May 8th, 2008 at 11:30 pm
Surely there must be something that can be applied to the farm animals to deter these creatures (DDT?), or to introduce some natural predator?
May 9th, 2008 at 12:08 am
Don’t worry Winston Smith, I’m sure the person AP hates the most is himself.
May 9th, 2008 at 12:27 am
Correct me if I’m wrong: “classic” worms (like tape worm) doesn’t have winged form – these are insects.
May 9th, 2008 at 12:55 am
For those who gloat, screw worms used to be common in the United States. Operational eradication using the sterile males trick started in 1957. The method has eradicated them over large zones of North and Central America, but it’s a never-ending effort.
They’re not after us because people working the Department of Agriculture are working keep them under control. Damn faceless bureaucrats!
May 9th, 2008 at 1:29 am
Wow, some people are just evil. I hope your children contract AIDS while you yourself get the Ebola flesh-eating virus. Bastard.
May 9th, 2008 at 1:54 am
Hahahaha, a nazi on the internet. I wonder how this disease could have spread so far from this country. kinda exotic this internazi stuff.
I hope these worms will get that far, too. Please post pictures from infected nazis>>>>>profit.
May 9th, 2008 at 2:03 am
Yeah, lets kill their birds too. That’ll work.
May 9th, 2008 at 3:44 am
We used to have the Screw worm in Texas until the mid-1970’s. It was hell on cattle. But the G-men kilt it good.
Just remember that when folk say the gov-ment aint never done nobody no good.
May 9th, 2008 at 4:02 am
As a veterinary student, we are taught that the potential for re-introduction into the U.S. is always possible…be warned!!!
May 9th, 2008 at 4:06 am
NEVER FORGET…
NEVER…
Obviously you already have forgotten
May 9th, 2008 at 4:45 am
man, yall are so stupid. it’s obviously a fake article. Yemen is perfectly fine and there are no “screw worms” terrorizing the country.
May 9th, 2008 at 4:57 am
…you really see nothing wrong with this, do you?
And “H” – anything that kills insects WILL kill birds, however you do it.
May 9th, 2008 at 5:08 am
May 9th, 2008 at 5:09 am
Lol what AP meant to say was ,” to make up for my total lack of a reasonable logic concerning other countries i’m going to toss out a baseless and vapid insult while failing to recognize some very obvious facts and then fall away into the darkness of my lair the internet never to reply to the cries of outrage i incited here today. also fuck ghandi” anyways i thought it was a much needed interpretation of this hillbillies comment.
May 9th, 2008 at 5:21 am
If any of you took AP’s comment seriously, you are maid of aids.
May 9th, 2008 at 5:29 am
Actually, the first poster does have a point. Notice how, that whenever there’s a natural disaster or some other plague around the world that needs help, america is usually the biggest helper. Remember Katrina? Well, I’d like to give a big thanks to all the other countries that came to our aid, and that would be 0. And this recent disaster in Yemen? The leader of Yemen stated that he was looking to the west for help. Truth is, the world needs us. And any country that hates america is insecure.
May 9th, 2008 at 5:31 am
The most evil worm is by far are the things that swim up your urine stream and embed themselves in your urethra. I think they live in the amazon. Those are the worst. They might be fish, actually.. hell, I forget what they are but they are horrible. If those haven’t invaded yet, you are ok.
May 9th, 2008 at 5:55 am
You, know if I wanted to sink to AP’s level I would probably wish that he could experience the pain of the screw worm first hand since maybe that would give him a lesson in HUMAN empathy. But, all I will wish is that whatever god he prays to has mercy on his soul.
May 9th, 2008 at 6:10 am
May 9th, 2008 at 6:38 am
You’re no fucking better, Marcus
May 9th, 2008 at 6:42 am
HA but can we cook them and eat them? if we can, humans will rain down the hurt on those bug bastards =)
May 9th, 2008 at 6:49 am
AP you’re a moron, “serves them right. fucking arabs” – what a ridiculous thing to say.
May 9th, 2008 at 7:14 am
“the maggots feed off the live flesh”
That makes no sense…The reason maggots can be used in hospitals is because they only eat the dead flesh…
May 9th, 2008 at 7:28 am
super tare
May 9th, 2008 at 7:33 am
May you never encounter what serves you right, you … (see below).
“worm” is a rather generic term. Yes, of course these are insects — they’re flies, and the “worms” are their larvae — maggots.
May 9th, 2008 at 9:52 am
I’m tired of the stereotypical insensitive comment followed by the 20 “that’s so ignorant of you to say!” comments. When will people learn to ignore trolls?
May 9th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
The world needs you? Ha, the world would be a million times better without America. Global Warming, Iraq, picking fights all over the place… and most people don’t deny that your education system sucks shit.
Truth is, the world is sick of America poking its nose in other countries’ businesses. America rarely helps any other country, and if it does help in some way, the benefits America gets from it repays it 10 times.
Either way, America as a country is failing. This is the decade of America falling in power to smarter countries like China.
May 9th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
Evidence A.
• Afghanistan pledged $100,000 for Katrina relief.
• Albania pledged $300,000 for Katrina relief.
• Armenia pledged $200,000 for Katrina relief.
• Australia has pledged $10 million for Katrina relief, and offered the services of disaster relief experts.
• Austria has provided crisis personnel, water pumps, and relief supplies. (See this Reuters report.)
• The Embassy of Austria in Washington, DC has established a Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund
• Azerbaijan has pledged $500,000 for Katrina relief.
• The Bahamas has pledged $50,000 for Katrina relief.
• Bahrain has pledged $5 million for Katrina relief.
• Bangladesh offered $1 million to the US for Katrina relief, and the services of military doctors and engineers.
• Canada flew 27 Canadian Red Cross and 5 other disaster relief personnel to Houston on September 3, to help with Katrina relief. Canada has also provided air transport services to FEMA, to help move supplies and personnel.
• The Public Health Agency of Canada airlifted supplies of antibiotics and other medicines, beds, blankets, and other supplies from its emergency stocks.
• Over 1,000 Canadian military personnel were deployed to the US on September 6, including a 40-member diving team that has been helping the US Navy restore water navigation and inspect levees.
• A 4-ship task group carrying emergency supplies, small boats, helicopters, communication experts, divers, and Army engineers was sent to the affected area on September 7.
• The Canadian Air Force provided two CH-146 Griffin helicopters to cover the US Coast Guard’s Boston area search and rescue needs, to free USCG helicopters for Katrina operations.
• The Embassy of Canada in Washington, DC held an all-day fundraiser on September 7 that collected over $20,000 for Red Cross Katrina relief work.
[...]
• Yemen has pledged [$100,000] for hurricane relief.
Now, tell me again that this is an excerpt of the zero countris that came to help US of A in the Katrina aftermath.
May 9th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
You should get your facts straight. Canada did come to the assistance of the USA during Katrina:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_response_to_Hurricane_Katrina
And also according to the US State Dept many European countries sent aid:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_response_to_Hurricane_Katrina
Stop watching FOX news and get your head out of your ass.
May 10th, 2008 at 12:49 am
My god!! You have your head stuck so far up your own ass you are looking out your nostrils.
Go do some Googling if what you typed is what you really believe – Talk about an arrogant asshole!
May 12th, 2008 at 6:44 am
This little guy looks scary.
May 12th, 2008 at 6:23 pm
But China’s such a fucked up country.
May 17th, 2008 at 5:25 am
Yeah, that’s great, Heh. Don’t blame the Chinese government, blame the entire country.
That’s no better than the “fucking a-rabs” comment, which is probably just a troll trying to spam an article that’s about AN INSECT, not politics. But everyone takes the bait. Like me.
May 2nd, 2009 at 10:51 pm
How did we get from a flesh eating worm to nazie’s, aids, katrina, and everything elis? I know someone said something dumb but hey it dosn’t have a thing to do with the “screw worm” at all. Plus i dont think AP or any other the other people that you hate and just have to tell off have even come back to check your post. So your stewing over this and taking you time to write while he has prolly forgotten about even making that comment. Oh and when you decide to talk about me for this know that i will not come back to read this as well. So again save you time and just dont even talk about me. If you do cool because again by tomorrow i will of forgotten everything about this because it isn’t that important to me. Oh yeah and one more thing. Have a good day. I love amarica. It can fail all it wants but you know what i will never leave. And if you think it will fail and disslike it well then leave. Trust me we will be better for it.