According to multiple reports, the U.S. government intends to breed billions of flies and dump them over Mexico and southern Texas to combat a “flesh-eating maggot.”
The Frankenstein-like experiment is purportedly meant to protect cattle and wildlife from the bug.
JUST IN – The U.S. 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, NBC News reports
— Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) July 2, 2025
Fox News provided details:
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.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the Department of Agriculture.
ADVERTISEMENTThe 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.
“This afternoon, I spoke with my counterpart in Mexico, @JulioBerdegue, on our joint fight against the New World Screwworm. He and his team have worked hand in hand with our @USDA team since May 11 to get these ports reopened. We are grateful,” Rollins said Monday.
This afternoon, I spoke with my counterpart in Mexico, @JulioBerdegue, on our joint fight against the New World Screwworm.
He and his team have worked hand in hand with our @USDA team since May 11 to get these ports reopened. We are grateful. pic.twitter.com/9N8TB4CmJh
— Secretary Brooke Rollins (@SecRollins) June 30, 2025
CBS News noted:
It is more effective and environmentally friendly than spraying the pest into oblivion, and it is how the U.S. and other nations 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.
The scientific name for the parasite, Cochliomyia hominivorax, is roughly translated to “man-eater,” according to the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
“When NWS fly larvae (maggots) burrow into the flesh of a living animal, they cause serious, often deadly damage to the animal,” the USDA says. “NWS can infest livestock, pets, wildlife, occasionally birds and, in rare cases, people.”
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.
ADVERTISEMENT“A thousand-pound bovine can be dead from this in two weeks,” said Michael Bailey, president elect of the American Veterinary Medicine Association.
Source link