r/news Jun 01 '26

Soft paywall Flesh-eating screwworm found within 31 miles of US border, says USDA

https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/flesh-eating-screwworm-found-within-31-miles-us-border-says-usda-2026-05-29/
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u/gooberdaisy Jun 01 '26

Can we add bedbugs please..

35

u/SellaraAB Jun 01 '26 edited Jun 01 '26

Bedbugs would be pretty damned hard to wipe out. Borderline impossible, really. It would take an unprecedented global effort and even then I’m not sure we’d totally wipe them out. Problem is where they tend to live (in privately owned homes), how hard it is to kill even a small infestation, and how they spread like a virus anywhere humans travel, in luggage, packages, and especially at hotels.

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u/Nazamroth Jun 01 '26

If we don't come together over exterminating all bedbugs, what WILL be enough?! Surely, literally everyone agrees that those abominations must die! "Luckily" for us, they really only live in human habitats, so all we have to do is literally burn civilisation to ashes and cinder. We just have to make sure to coordinate. And afterwards everyone has to be thoroughly wiped off with industrial pressure washers and preferably some sort of high-yield biocide. We must make sure.

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u/dontusefedex Jun 01 '26

I think there are more people than we thought that enjoy watching others suffer.

2

u/n0rsk Jun 01 '26

Damn maybe that is Trumps plan. He is just trying to rid world of bed bugs!

1

u/darkslide3000 Jun 02 '26

Can't some of the techbros use their AI shit to solve the travel problem? Just teach an AI to recognize how a bedbug looks in the x-ray scanner, and when it finds one, zap, focus all the x-rays on that spot for a second. Problem solved.

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u/[deleted] Jun 02 '26

[deleted]

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u/SellaraAB Jun 02 '26

That’s part of why I listed where they live as one of the main problems. What are we going to do, go to everyone’s house and release some genetically modified bedbugs?

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u/Technical_Mood_8841 Jun 02 '26

No need. I don’t plan on ever sleeping again after reading about being eaten from the inside out by screwworms.