The pink bollworm — an invasive species that plagues cotton farmers around the world — has been successfully eradicated from much of the U.S. and Mexico.

Eradication campaigns rarely work, but this one did.

NPR food and farming reporter Dan Charles gives us the play-by-play to how it took two concurrent approaches to eradicate this devastating pest.

Email the show at shortwave@npr.org.

This episode was produced by Thomas Lu, edited by Gisele Grayson, and fact-checked by Ariela Zebede and Rasha Aridi. The audio engineer for this episode was Patrick Murray.

Short Wave Podcast

It’s science for everyone, using a lot of creativity and a little humor. Join host Maddie Sofia for science on a different wavelength.