Sterilized flies: Thoughts?

[TheAddict]

So there's been a kind of practice, in which scientists take fly eggs and heat them up with a dose of radiation. As a result of this practice, only male flies are born and they're born sterile.

They are later set free to mate with the female flies that are prominent in areas where food is grown. Thus decreasing the fly population around crops.
This technique has successfully eradicated the screw-worm fly, which used it's maggots to eat warm-blooded animals in North America.

Pros: It's not cruel per-se. There's no pain involved, and the population decreases without killing. They just don't make eggs. So there are less flies around food.

Cons: It's still a form of species population control, in which killing (even if not directly) is involved.

Discuss.

[brimstoneSalad]

I don't see any problems with this method.

Pest control is very important, and this method lets the flies die on their own, and just prevents them from reproducing.

[miniboes]

Sterilization is not very harmful as far as I know, especially for an animal with such minimal intelligence that it probably does not want a child to be emotionally fulfilled as a human might.