Federal government plans to air-drop sterile flies over Texas to fight flesh-eating maggots
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.
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Fox News Digital has reached out to the Department of Agriculture.
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.
The New World Screwworm was considered to be eradicated in the U.S. since 1966, but has recently emerged as a threat following an outbreak in Mexico.
In May, the news triggered a shutdown of cattle, horse and bison imports along the southern border, USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins announced at the time.
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"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.
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.