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The federal government is planning to breed millions of flies and dump them over Mexico and Texas via airplanes in an effort to combat a flesh-eating maggot.
The pest being targeted is the flesh-eating larva of the New World Screwworm (NWS) fly. The Department of Agriculture plans to ramp up the breeding and distribution of adult male flies. The flies will be sterilized with radiation before they are released.
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.
In this Jan. 2024 photo provided by the Panama-United States Commission for the Eradication and Prevention of Cattle Screwworms (COPEG), a worker drops New World Screwworm fly larvae into a tray at a facility that breeds sterile flies in Pacora, Panama. (COPEG via AP)
“Due to the threat of New World Screwworm I am announcing the suspension of live cattle, horse, & bison imports through U.S. southern border ports of entry effective immediately,” she wrote on X.
The pest is endemic in Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and some South American countries, according to the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). Despite being found in forests and other wooded areas, they often seek hosts like cattle or horses in pastures and fields, per the above source.
A female fly will often lay eggs in a wound or orifice of a live, warm-blooded animal. The eggs then hatch into larvae (maggots) that burrow into the flesh, causing potentially deadly damage.
In this Jan. 2024 photo provided by The Panama-United States Commission for the Eradication and Prevention of Cattle Screwworms (COPEG), a worker holds two small containers of New World Screwworm fly pupae at a facility that breeds sterile flies in Pacora, Panama. (COPEG via AP)
Between 1962 and 1975, the U.S. and Mexico bred and released more than 94 billion sterile flies to eradicate the pest, according to the USDA.
Fox News Digital’s Khloe Quill and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
