The use of nuclear radiations to control insect populations

The technique of nuclear sterilization of insects consists in radiating a large number of males grown in laboratory to sterilize them and then release them in the nature. When in the wild, the sterile male will compete with the "non sterile" ones for mating the females. As a result of this competition between the males and many females having mated with sterile partners, there will be a natural decrease in the fertility rates, the number of birth and a progressive extinction of the insect’s population.



This technique has been used with great success to control the spread of the screw worm, a very bad parasite of cattle, sheep, goats but also of humans that was attacking animals in Africa (It is a type of big black fly that lays hundreds of eggs in skin wounds of the animal and then the larvaes will just come out from any part in the body, drilling the tissues and bursting through the skin... very disgusting to see the photos...). The technique is tested also for other insects including mosquitoes for the fight against malaria.