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Most people will reflexively recoil at the words “flesh-eating maggots,” and if you’re one of them, you’ll probably be pleased to hear experts have already mastered a plan to eradicate them. That’s the case with a threat that has emerged in Texas, which will soon be covered in billions of flies bred for that specific purpose.
We live in a world that’s teeming with invasive species with the potential to wreak havoc on ecosystems, industries, and even economies if steps aren’t taken to prevent them from gaining a foothold.
That includes the New World screw-worm fly, a parasitic insect that feeds on flesh and subsequently emerged as a scourge in a number of countries primarily located in tropical regions in the Western Hemisphere due to their propensity to target livestock, birds, pets, and, less frequently, human beings.
The flies are particularly dangerous thanks to females that have a propensity to lay eggs in the wounds left behind after feeding, which can lead to the aforementioned flesh-eating maggots proliferating and subjecting the animals affected to severe pain, infection, and even death.
In the 1950s, scientists used the island nation of Curacao to serve as the testing site for a method of eradication known as the “sterile insect technique,” which largely revolved around breeding male flies that were unable to reproduce and introducing them to a female population that subsequently struggled to propagate.
The experiment turned out to be a resounding success, and the same strategy was subsequently used to decimate the populations in a number of other countries in Central and South America.
Unfortunately, the screw-worm fly still manages to cause its fair share of trouble, and according to CBS News, officials are preparing to whip up a new batch of sterile insects to target a growing threat stemming from a new population that was detected in southern Mexico toward the end of 2024.
The USDA says it plans to work in conjunction with authorities south of the border to import the flies from a factory they expect to open by July of next year. The agency will supplement those specimens with ones from a preexisting operation in Panama before loading them into planes that will be used to blanket southern Texas with the sterile insects in what is largely being positioned as a precautionary measure.
With that said, it never hurts to be too careful when flesh-eating maggots are involved.