US EditionUSDA Breaks Ground on $8.5 Million Texas Screwworm Fly Facility
- The U.S. government plans to breed and release billions of sterilized male screwworm flies over Mexico and southern Texas starting by July 2026.
- This effort responds to the threat of the flesh-eating New World screwworm fly, which can kill cattle in two weeks and recently caused the U.S. to close its southern border to livestock imports until mid-September.
- The USDA will open a new breeding factory in southern Mexico and a distribution center in southern Texas, investing over $29 million to scale production from Panama's current 117 million flies weekly to 400 million flies weekly.
- Edwin Burgess of the University of Florida called the sterile fly release "an exceptionally good technology," noting previous eradication of the pest in North America through the same method from 1962 to 1975 with over 94 billion flies bred.
- This approach aims to reduce the pest population by releasing sterilized males that mate ineffectively, a strategy viewed as more effective and environmentally sound than spraying pesticides, but experts warn the pest could still reemerge despite past successes.
81 Articles
81 Articles
The U.S. government is working on the rearing of billions of sterilized " lucilia bouchère" flies to combat the development of its own larva, which is dangerous for cattle.
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This article is part of a cross-border investigative series supported by Journalismfund Europe. Chris Carlton built his house in Ingleside, Texas in 2008, back when it was a sleepy fishing town. “We were this little pocket of paradise. This area was known for fishing long before it was known for petroleum.” Since then, more than a dozen oil and chemical facilities have sprung up along the coastline, drawn to the local area by access to Transatl…
Swarm and awe: US to use flies vs a pest
TOPEKA, Kansas — 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 to protect the United States from a bug that […]...Keep on reading: Swarm and awe: US to use flies vs a pest
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