They breed in open sores and orifices then eat their way through flesh. They squirm visibly under the skin while producing horrendous odors that rise from wounds like sewer gas belching out of a manhole.
Their scientific name, C. hominivorax, translates literally as “man-eater,” and they are slowly inching their way closer to you.
Known as New World Screwworm, these fly larvae can infect a variety of species, including humans, though they’re most commonly found in cattle. It was eradicated from North and Central America in the 20th century.
But in 2022, the maggots began rearing their heads in parts of Central America, and they’ve been moving north since.
In November, the parasite was discovered in a cow in southern Mexico, triggering a cattle embargo that was later conditionally lifted.
This month the larvae were found in cattle in the Mexican states of Oaxaca and Veracruz, 700 miles from the Texas border, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) responded by indefinitely shutting down animal imports originating from or transferring through Mexico.
The U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins this week released a statement on the USDA efforts to thwart larva invasion, including a $21 million emergency investment to revamp a