The federal government is quietly breeding billions of flies in an ongoing effort to stop a dangerous parasite that threatens livestock and wildlife in Texas and along the southern border.
The project, run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) with support from Mexico, targets the screwworm fly, a lethal parasite that burrows into open wounds and can kill cattle, deer, and other large animals in days.
To expand the program, the USDA is building a new $8.5 million insect dispersal center in Texas, while also upgrading a site in southern Mexico to boost fly production and sterilization capacity.
The plan? Release waves of sterile male screwworms into infected regions so the wild female population can’t reproduce — effectively collapsing future generations of the pest.
117 Million Flies Per Week
The U.S. currently produces and sterilizes 117 million screwworm flies every week at a Panama-based lab, then air-drops them by plane over Texas, Florida, and parts of Central America.
After sterilization, the flies are chilled and sorted by sex, with the stronger male flies dropped over hotspots. Female flies are excluded because they’re weak