Pets are the key to screwworm prevention - plus, Siri's new AI and why 29% of businesses have jobs they can't fill

**Christy Strawser** (0:01)
Welcome to On Deadline, your radio news from Odyssey newsrooms across the country.
I'm Christy Strawser, Odyssey's managing editor of news. Let's talk about pests. And by that, we don't mean door knockers trying to get you to sign petitions. We mean insects, bugs, flies. Some are an annoyance and others are more than that. Some of them are dangerous. We'll start with the innocuous fish flies and move to the dangerous screw worms. Here's WWJ in Detroit.

**Jackie** (0:28)
Luke Sloan joining us from Lake St. Clair. You know, the one thing that many people comment on is their smell, Luke. And do you notice that when you're there?

**Luke Sloan** (0:38)
You know, I have noticed that this morning, Jackie. They're a bit stinky. We're talking about the fish flies, of course. And, you know, there's a lot of them these days. The people that I'm talking to here in St. Clair Shores this morning say it's really been since probably Sunday or Monday, since they've really picked up and all of a sudden you see fish flies like I see them right now on the sidewalk in front of me and on cars like what happened earlier today, plus on buildings and the homeowners hate them as well, especially the boaters and the anglers as well. They really get annoyed by these fish flies. But a lot of people just deal with them like Andy, who's lived here in St. Clair Shores at 11 and Harper for a very long time. He says it's just what comes with the month of June here on the East side. So I asked Andy to that end, what do you do to try to get rid of the fish flies?

**Andy** (1:25)
Keep your lights off at night.
They don't have mouths on them, so they're not going to bite you. And that little thing, we'll say it's a stinger at the end, it's flexible. They're just a harmless little bug that comes up this time of year, every year.

**Luke Sloan** (1:40)
Others are nostalgic about the fish flies who I talked to, saying that they actually like seeing them because it means that summertime here. And while they may be stinky and annoying and everywhere, the Michigan DNR says a lot of fish flies are actually a good thing, because that means the more fish flies, the better the water quality is of Lake St. Clair. So I suppose that's some good news to pass along. Reporting live this morning in St. Clair Shores, Luke Sloan, WWJ News, Radio 950

**Christy Strawser** (2:07)
Here's more on screwworms with Bob Rose in Florida.

**Bob Rose** (2:10)
Let's have a conversation with Florida Ad Commissioner Wilton Simpson. Good morning, Commish. How are you doing?

**Wilton Simpson** (2:16)
Good morning. I'm doing great.

**Bob Rose** (2:17)
Hey, I'm worried about this screwworm. You were the first to talk about it quite some time ago.
I heard there are threats to maybe some cattle in the southwest United States. What's the latest and what are we doing about it in Florida?

**Wilton Simpson** (2:32)
Sure. Very good. Unfortunately, we do have to talk about this, Bob.
So the screwworm is a parasite.
It will eat.
It embeds in sores or infected areas and grows and then eats the flesh or eats what it's in. So we have to protect our food supply chain, number one, from the screwworm. And it is in Texas today. There's been several cases that take it in cases. So what we're doing in Florida is we put a moratorium on any animals coming out of that area that's infected in Texas. I believe we extended that till Friday now. So we're getting prepared to do the proper inspections. We also require them to have a veterinarian's certificates of treatment if you're coming out of the infected area. And but the biggest threat that we probably have today in Florida is people moving their pets around. So if you are coming from an infested area and you have a pet, you certainly want to make sure that before you, well, you want to check your pets every day anyways. There's right now today, we don't have the screw worm in Florida, it's in Texas. But if you're traveling and you want to make sure that, especially in the Texas area, that Southwest area, New Mexico area, that you are checking your pets because obviously the screw worm can, we could get an infestation from pet owners bringing it back into Florida.
And if you think you see a screw worm, if your pet has any type of injury, any type of wound, open wound, you certainly want to monitor that very closely. If you see any type of activity with maggots or anything, you certainly want to get your pet to the veterinarian. There's plenty of treatments. So the veterinarians are well equipped to handle the screw worm. And what we're doing in the state of Florida is we're going to be training additional staff and teams not only to do a more thorough inspection at our interdiction stations, but we're also going to be visiting areas where there's slaughterhouses and things where animals can come from Texas to our Florida, Florida houses. We want to make sure that there are no screw worm coming in the state of Florida. And so we're going to do everything we can to keep it out of here. It's really an all hands on deck though. And if you suspect you see anything that looks like that, then please contact your local veterinarian and obviously, or you can contact our Department of Agriculture. Let us know. We certainly would send someone out, but your local veterinarian will be able to treat your pets. And obviously, animal veterinarians are on alert already, and we're continuously updating them on progress.