US to dump billions of flies over Mexico in $30m fight against flesh-eating maggots

US to dump billions of flies over Mexico in $30m fight against flesh-eating maggots

A worker holds two small containers of New World Screwworm fly pupae. Picture: The Panama-United States Commission for the Eradication and Prevention of Cattle Screwworms (COPEG)

The US has reportedly drawn up plans to breed billions of flies over Mexico in an attempt to eradicate a vicious variety of flesh-eating maggot.

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The move comes as the New World Screwworm fly larvae continues to cause chaos as it infiltrates the US beef industry, affecting wider wildlife, pets and, in rare cases, humans.

According to scientists, the new batches of male sterilised maggots will be dumped over the South American nation and the US state of Texas in a bid to eradicate the vicious variety of flesh-eating larvae.

The US Department of Agriculture is said the male flies, which measure slightly larger than the average housefly, will be sterilised with radiation before being released.

The strategy, set out by scientists, will force the female screwworms to breed with the newly sterilised males.

The flesh-eating variety of the screwworm maggots were eradicated from the US in 1966, but the creatures appear to me making a comeback.

Increasingly deemed a pest across areas of South America, there are now fears the maggots could once again begin spreading north into parts of the US.

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Up close view of a New World Screwworm fly larvae. Picture: The Panama–United States Commission for the Eradication and Prevention of Screwworm Infestation in Livestock (COPEG)

A worker drops New World Screwworm fly larvae into a tray at a facility that breeds sterile flies. Picture: COPEG

The move will ensure the next generation of flesh-eating young are not produced, instead passing on the sterile genes from the radiation blasted bugs and ensuring the eventual eradicating the flesh-eating variety.

“It’s an exceptionally good technology,” said Edwin Burgess, an assistant professor at the University of Florida who studies parasites in animals.

“It’s an all-time great in terms of translating science to solve some kind of large problem.”

Flesh-eating maggots decomposing meat. Picture: Alamy

A dog infected by the flesh-eating maggots. Picture: COPEG

Reports suggest the screwworm fly factory in Mexico will become operational within a year, with a fly factory already currently in operation in Panama.

The Panama factory is capable of breeding up to 117 million flies a week - a figure now deemed inadequate by the US.

As such, a further distribution centre is reportedly planned for the US, located in the southern state of Texas, with the aim of quadrupling production of the maggot at a cost of nearly $30 million.