Currently, there is an advanced method for combating insect pests through the mass release of sterile males into the area where pest control is desired. I have always been curious about why it is necessary to sterilize males rather than females. After all, it seems that just one fertile male could mate with all the females. On the other hand, if the females were sterile, the males wouldn’t be able to do anything about it, and one fertile female wouldn’t produce as much offspring as one fertile male would. There is an answer to this question. However, before I provide it, I will digress a bit in my narrative.
During the time of the “stagnation” in the USSR, a wave of immigrants flooded into Israel. Naturally, these were not unskilled laborers, but people with quite “fluffy” professions: scientists, traders, craftsmen, watchmakers, and jewelers. Israel is a small country, and there simply weren’t enough jobs for all the jewelers and watchmakers. However, the scientists who arrived with them were working on various technologies, and it turned out that to implement one of the technologies, which promised to revolutionize its field, a large number of jewelers and watchmakers were needed. This technology remained merely a theoretical concept, as no country could gather so many unemployed jewelers and watchmakers. No country, except for Israel. So, the jewelers and watchmakers were put to work on the assembly line—doing jewelry work.
It is important to understand that Israel is a religious state, and the approaches embraced by the religious segment of the population are considered on par with scientific approaches. The religious community has insisted that in the Promised Land, everyone must go through. Conversion. To test the feasibility of this doctrine and avoid harming ecological balance, they decided to start with pest insects. The scientists only “slightly” adjusted the procedure and replaced the mandatory circumcision in the conversion process with amputation. For practical purposes.
It’s no surprise that Israel has become a pioneer in the widespread use of sterile males in agriculture. After all, it is a place where age-old traditions regarding Jewish boys have merged with the skills of fine craftsmanship, the brilliant ideas of scientists, and the persistence of theologians. Now, I hope it’s clear why males are sterilized instead of females.