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Science & Technology
Federal government plans to air-drop sterile flies over Texas to fight flesh-eating maggots
2025-07-03

[FOX] 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.
Posted by:Skidmark

#1  as article notes, the sterile fly strategy has been used before

it worked to halt the spread but didn't eliminate the species
Posted by: Lord Garth   2025-07-03 10:27  

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