The hypothesis that a pest insect could be controlled and perhaps exterminated by rearing and releasing sterile individuals of the same species to mate with wild insects was proposed by USDA entomologists prior to 1950 and proven in 1954 by an experiment in which screwworms were eradicated from the island of Curacao. That successful experiment was followed by a State-Federal regulatory program which eradicated an isolated screwworm population from the southeastern U.S. in 1959. A similar program was initiated in the southwestern U.S. in 1962 but it soon became an international program because the screwworm populations of the Southwest and Mexico were in reality one population. In 1972 the Mexico-American Screwworm Eradication Commission was formally established and a joint program was launched by the two countries. The goal of this program was to eradicate screwworms from the U.S. and then from Mexico as far south as the Isthmus of Tehuantepec where a sterile fly barrier would be established to protect the eradicated areas from reinvasion. This goal was achieved in 1984. Courageous decisions by program leaders and sustained high level work performance by rank and file employees were major components of the favorable outcome, but the research support provided by USDA-Agricultural Research Service and the technical improvements in eradication technology provided by its research scientists were also important elements of eradication success.