Sterile Insect and Parasite Augmentation Techniques: Unexploited Solutions for Many Insect Pest Problems

2The Florida Entomological Society is to be commended for selecting The Screwworm Research Team as the recipient of your Pioneer Award. The selection of this team for the award will not only be an honor for this pioneering group of scientists, it will also enhance the prestige of the new awards program. I feel doubly honored to have been invited to deliver the Pioneer Lecture for this special occasion. It is regretted that several members of the team are no longer with us. I am sure that if they were here today they would be as proud and would feel as honored as those of us who have had the good fortune to survive the years that have gone by. I wish to pay special tribute to the deceased members of the team. I would like to acknowledge one of my most respected colleagues and a special friend of the family, Dr. Raymond C. Bushland. Dr. Bushland and his assistant D. A. Hopkins, who is also deceased, demonstrated in the laboratory that the sterile insect technique was a viable concept. They participated in the field studies that proved that the sterile flies would perform under natural conditions. Dr. Bushland was a technical advisor to the pest mangers who conducted the suppression programs. I also wish to pay tribute to another highly respected colleague, an able and dedicated scientist and a special friend of the family, Dr. Arthur W. Lindquist. He had confidence in the sterile insect technique from the beginning. As chief of the section on Insects Affecting Man and Animals, he did all that he could to support the efforts of those who were conducting the laboratory and field investigations. Another key member of the team who made the technique work in practice was Chet Husman. Mr. Husman was the engineer who designed the machinery for the mass rearing of the flies. He designed and supervised the construction of the first screwworm rearing facility that was located at Sebring, Florida, and the larger facility that was later constructed in Texas. Every aspect of the engineering work required innovation on the part of Chet Husman because never before had insects been reared on the scale of 50 to 100 million per week. I want also to acknowledge the members of the team who have had the good fortune to survive the many years that have passed. A key member of the team who was directly in charge of the field release experiments was Al Baumhover. He made the first sterile fly releases on the Island of Sanibal which is not far from here. That experiment demonstrated that the sterile males would perform their mission in a natural environment. He was also in charge of the experiment conducted on the island of Curacao, Netherlands Antilles. This classic experiment was of great importance. It demonstrated that the technique could eradicate an isolated screwworm population. In the conduct of this experiment he had the cooperation and support of Dr. B. A. Bitter, the veterinary officer for the island. I hope that Al will have the opportunity to describe the details of the pioneering experiment. I recall the great satisfaction that Drs. Bushland, Lindquist, and I had in receiving Mr. Baumhover’s favorable report each week for the first 9 weeks after the