Billions of flies to be bred and released in battle against flesh-eating maggots
The US government is preparing to breed billions of flies and dump them out of airplanes over Texas and Mexico in a battle against flesh-eating maggots.
Despite the plan sounding like something out of a horror movie, it is part of the government's bid to protect the US from a bug that could decimate its beef industry, wildlife, and kill household pets.
"It's an exceptionally good technology," said Edwin Burgess, an assistant professor at the University of Florida who studies parasites in animals, particularly livestock. "It's an all-time great in terms of translating science to solve some kind of large problem."
The flesh-munching larva of the New World Screwworm fly has been targeted by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) in an innovative pest control plan. To tackle this threat, the USDA is ramping up the production of adult male flies, sterilising them with radiation before releasing them into nature.
These sterile males then mate with wild females, resulting in unfertilised eggs that fail to hatch, eventually leading to a gradual decline in the pesky fly population.
Unlike conventional pest control methods which may involve harmful chemicals, this approach is heralded as more effective and eco-friendly. It's a tried-and-tested technique, having been used previously to quash screwworm outbreaks north of Panama.
A Panama-based fly factory played a pivotal role in containing these insects, but despite such measures, the pest made an unwelcome return in southern Mexico last year.
A brand new screwworm fly facility is anticipated to commence operations in southern Mexico by July 2026 according to the USDA's plans. They are gearing up to launch a fly distribution hub in southern Texas before the year ends.
This will ensure that Panama-sourced sterilised flies can be imported and disseminated as required. Injecting worry into ranchers and the wider American beef industry, most fly larvae typically consume dead tissue whereas the New World screwworm fly is a disturbing anomaly - along with its Old World sibling found in Asia and Africa - due to their proclivity for live flesh. Female screws favour laying their eggs in open wounds or areas of mucus exposure.
Highlighting the severity of the threat, Michael Bailey, president-elect of the American Veterinary Medicine Association, stated, "A thousand-pound bovine can be dead from this in two weeks," emphasising the urgent need for action against these destructive parasites.
Veterinarians have effective treatments for infested animals, yet an infestation can still be distressing – not to mention the agony it can inflict on animals. Don Hineman, a western Kansas retiree with ranching roots, remembers the impact of infected cattle from his youth spent on the family farm. "It smelled nasty," he reminisced. "Like rotting meat."
The New World screwworm fly, a creature of tropical climes, finds the cold of Midwestern or Great Plains winters unforgiving, reducing it to no more than a seasonal menace. Nevertheless, between 1962 and 1975, the US and Mexico launched more than 94 billion sterile flies into the environment in a concerted effort to obliterate the threat, as per USDA records.
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Billions of flies to be bred and released in battle against flesh-eating maggots
Despite the plan sounding like something out of a horror movie, it is part of the government's bid to protect the US from a bug that could decimate its beef industry, wildlife, and kill household pets The US government is preparing to breed billions of flies and dump them out of airplanes over Texas and Mexico in a battle against flesh-eating maggots. Despite the plan sounding like something out of a horror movie, it is part of the government's bid to protect the US from a bug that could decimate its beef industry, wildlife, and kill household pets. "It's an exceptionally good technology," said Edwin Burgess, an assistant professor at the University of Florida who studies parasites in animals, particularly livestock. "It's an all-time great in terms of translating science to solve some kind of large problem." The flesh-munching larva of the New World Screwworm fly has been targeted by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) in an innovative pest control plan. To tackle this threat, the USDA is ramping up the production of adult male flies, sterilising them with radiation before releasing them into nature. These sterile males then mate with wild females, resulting in unfertilised eggs that fail to hatch, eventually leading to a gradual decline in the pesky fly population. Unlike conventional pest control methods which may involve harmful chemicals, this approach is heralded as more effective and eco-friendly. It's a tried-and-tested technique, having been used previously to quash screwworm outbreaks north of Panama. A Panama-based fly factory played a pivotal role in containing these insects, but despite such measures, the pest made an unwelcome return in southern Mexico last year. A brand new screwworm fly facility is anticipated to commence operations in southern Mexico by July 2026 according to the USDA's plans. They are gearing up to launch a fly distribution hub in southern Texas before the year ends. This will ensure that Panama-sourced sterilised flies can be imported and disseminated as required. Injecting worry into ranchers and the wider American beef industry, most fly larvae typically consume dead tissue whereas the New World screwworm fly is a disturbing anomaly - along with its Old World sibling found in Asia and Africa - due to their proclivity for live flesh. Female screws favour laying their eggs in open wounds or areas of mucus exposure. Highlighting the severity of the threat, Michael Bailey, president-elect of the American Veterinary Medicine Association, stated, "A thousand-pound bovine can be dead from this in two weeks," emphasising the urgent need for action against these destructive parasites. Veterinarians have effective treatments for infested animals, yet an infestation can still be distressing – not to mention the agony it can inflict on animals. Don Hineman, a western Kansas retiree with ranching roots, remembers the impact of infected cattle from his youth spent on the family farm. "It smelled nasty," he reminisced. "Like rotting meat." The New World screwworm fly, a creature of tropical climes, finds the cold of Midwestern or Great Plains winters unforgiving, reducing it to no more than a seasonal menace. Nevertheless, between 1962 and 1975, the US and Mexico launched more than 94 billion sterile flies into the environment in a concerted effort to obliterate the threat, as per USDA records.
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The US government is preparing to breed billions of flies and dump them out of airplanes over Mexico and southern Texas to fight a flesh-eating maggot. That sounds like the plot of a horror movie, but it is part of the government's plans for protecting the US from a bug that could devastate its beef industry, decimate wildlife and even kill household pets. This weird science has worked well before. 'It's an exceptionally good technology,' said Edwin Burgess, an assistant professor at the University of Florida who studies parasites in animals, particularly livestock. 'It's an all-time great in terms of translating science to solve some kind of large problem.' The targeted pest is the flesh-eating larva of the new world screwworm fly. The US Department of Agriculture plans to ramp up the breeding and distribution of adult male flies – sterilizing them with radiation before releasing them. They mate with females in the wild, and the eggs laid by the female aren't fertilized and don't hatch. There are fewer larvae, and, over time, the fly population dies out. It is more effective and environmentally friendly than spraying the pest into oblivion, and it is how the US and other countries north of Panama eradicated the same pest decades ago. Sterile flies from a factory in Panama kept the flies contained there for years, but the pest appeared in southern Mexico late last year. The USDA expects a new screwworm fly factory to be up and running in southern Mexico by July 2026. It plans to open a fly distribution center in southern Texas by the end of the year so that it can import and distribute flies from Panama if necessary. Most fly larvae feed on dead flesh, making the new world screwworm fly and its old world counterpart in Asia and Africa outliers – and for the American beef industry, a serious threat. Females lay their eggs in wounds and, sometimes, exposed mucus. 'A thousand-pound bovine can be dead from this in two weeks,' said Michael Bailey, president-elect of the American Veterinary Medicine Association. Veterinarians have effective treatments for animals suffering from an infestation, but it can still be unpleasant – and also cripple an animal with pain. Don Hineman, a retired western Kansas rancher, recalled infested cattle as a youngster on his family's farm. 'It smelled nasty,' he said. 'Like rotting meat.' The new world screwworm fly is a tropical species, unable to survive midwestern or great plains winters, so it was a seasonal scourge. Still, the US and Mexico bred and released more than 94 billion sterile flies from 1962 through 1975 to eradicate the pest, according to the USDA. The numbers need to be large enough that females in the wild can't help but hook up with sterile males for mating. One biological trait gives fly fighters a crucial wing up: females mate only once in their weeks-long adult lives. Alarmed about the fly's migration north, the US temporarily closed its southern border in May to imports of live cattle, horses and bison and it won't be fully open again at least until mid-September. But female flies can lay their eggs in wounds on any warm-blooded animal, and that includes humans. Decades ago, the US had fly factories in Florida and Texas, but they closed as the pest was eradicated. The Panama fly factory can breed up to 117 million flies a week, but the USDA wants the capacity to breed at least 400 million a week. It plans to spend $8.5m on the Texas site and $21m to convert a facility in southern Mexico for breeding sterile fruit flies into one for screwworm flies. In one sense, raising a large colony of flies is relatively easy, said Cassandra Olds, an assistant professor of entomology at Kansas State University. But, she added, 'You've got to give the female the cues that she needs to lay her eggs, and then the larvae have to have enough nutrients.' Fly factories once fed larvae horse meat and honey and then moved to a mix of dried eggs and either honey or molasses, according to past USDA research. Later, the Panama factory used a mix that included egg powder and red blood cells and plasma from cattle. In the wild, larvae ready for the equivalent of a butterfly's cocoon stage drop off their hosts and on to the ground, burrow just below the surface and grow to adulthood inside a protective casing resembling a dark brown Tic Tac candy. In the Panama factory, workers drop them into trays of sawdust. Security is an issue. Sonja Swiger, an entomologist with Texas A&M University's extension service, said a breeding facility must prevent any fertile adults kept for breeding stock from escaping. Dropping flies from the air can be dangerous. Last month, a plane freeing sterile flies crashed near Mexico's border with Guatemala, killing three people. In test runs in the 1950s, according to the USDA, scientists put the flies in paper cups and then dropped the cups out of planes using special chutes. Later, they loaded them into boxes with a machine known as a 'whiz packer'. The method is still much the same: light planes drop crates containing flies. Burgess called the development of sterile fly breeding and distribution in the 1950s and 1960s one of the USDA's 'crowning achievements'. Some agriculture officials argue now that new factories shouldn't be shuttered after another successful fight. 'Something we think we have complete control over – and we have declared a triumph and victory over – can always rear its ugly head again,' Burgess said.
