Today's Agriculture Story: Giant Balls of Frozen Flies to Save North Carolina Produce

Seriously.

The problem: Mexican Fruit Flies have been found in produce in North Carolina. This destructive pest can destroy massive amounts of crops; they lay eggs in various types of fruit, which is eaten by the larvae and causes the fruit to rot.

The solution: Breed millions of male fruit flies, and sterilize them with radiation. Then freeze the flies, to put the to sleep. Take a huge ball of froze, sterile flies and drop them from an airplane into agricultural land. Since fruit flies only mate once, and mating with sterile male flies means that no offspring are produced, this is an extraordinarily effective way to limit the damage of these pests.

Science is awesome.