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Biotech United States Science

Sterilized Flies To Be Released In Order To Stop Flesh-Eating Maggot Infestation (cbsnews.com) 43

Beeftopia shares a report from CBS News: The U.S. 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 for protecting the U.S. from a bug that could devastate its beef industry, decimate wildlife and even kill household pets. This weird science has worked well before.

The targeted pest is the flesh-eating larva of the New World Screwworm fly. The U.S. Department of Agriculture plans to ramp up the breeding and distribution of adult male flies -- sterilizing them with radiation before releasing them. 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. It is more effective and environmentally friendly than spraying the pest into oblivion, and it is how the U.S. and other nations north of Panama eradicated the same pest decades ago. Sterile flies from a factory in Panama kept the flies contained there for years, but the pest appeared in southern Mexico late last year. [...]

The USDA expects a new screwworm fly factory to be up and running in southern Mexico by July 2026. It plans to open a fly distribution center in southern Texas by the end of the year so that it can import and distribute flies from Panama if necessary. The New World screwworm fly is a tropical species, unable to survive Midwestern or Great Plains winters, so it was a seasonal scourge. Still, the U.S. and Mexico bred and released more than 94 billion sterile flies from 1962 through 1975 to eradicate the pest, according to the USDA. The numbers need to be large enough that females in the wild can't help but hook up with sterile males for mating. One biological trait gives fly fighters a crucial wing up: Females mate only once in their weekslong adult lives.
"A similar approach to certain species of mosquito is being debated," adds Beeftopia. "The impact on ecosystems is unclear."

Sterilized Flies To Be Released In Order To Stop Flesh-Eating Maggot Infestation

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  • dump files what format?

    • by SeaFox ( 739806 )

      They're serialized according to the title, so maybe a segmented RAR archive?

    • by cstacy ( 534252 )

      dump files what format?

      They will be serialized, it says; JSON?

      Dump flies like a serial format.
      Fruit flies like a banana cereal.

  • Finally (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Soon, flesh eating maggot Stephen Miller will be eradicated.
  • Not a new thing (Score:5, Informative)

    by Enigma2175 ( 179646 ) on Thursday July 03, 2025 @11:54PM (#65495766) Homepage Journal

    This has been going on for a long time, the headline/summary make it sound like this is something new. Kurzgesagt did a recent video on this, How Nuclear Flies Protect You from Flesh-Eating Parasites [youtube.com]

    • I could be wrong, but didn't that video focus on Panama? This post makes it sound like the flies have made it further north than before and new efforts in Mexico are now required.
      • by higuita ( 129722 )

        yes, the panama "fly-wall" failed some way (probably flies in shipping containers arrived north of it) and the war have to be again extended back to the northern
        (of panama) countries to eradicate it again

      • They were contained in that area with a big effort from the late 50's to the early 80's, but we slacked off and now they are on the move again. Unless you're willing to DDT large portions of Panama, this will be an ongoing war.

    • by asylumx ( 881307 )
      The summary does say this very clearly, more than once.

      "it is how the U.S. and other nations north of Panama eradicated the same pest decades ago"

      "the U.S. and Mexico bred and released more than 94 billion sterile flies from 1962 through 1975 to eradicate the pest, according to the USDA"
    • This is very much new. The screwflies made it through the containment gap that has held them back for a generation. They are moving north toward the US again, and fast.

  • ... flesh-eating larva ...

    Flesh-eating flies inhabit half the planet: This is why the medieval/survivalist remedy of allowing flies into burn wounds is very, very stupid. Put out dead meat, then transfer the fly eggs from it to the living wound.

  • He has a bad infection!
    Get some maggots to eat that out.
    Now the maggots are out of control!
    Shit, get me some flies...

    The flies are overrunning us!
    Get me some very large carnivores plants.
    The plants are murdering! And singing!
    God damn it, let's round up some pesticide.
    Oops we're killing the bees -- we need them!
    Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck...

  • This program languished and was revived by Biden. Fortunately, Donald is not trashing at least one Biden success https://www.michiganfarmnews.c... [michiganfarmnews.com]
  • Excuse me, server... But does this human tissue have any meat in it? Because I'm a vegetarian.
  • Please lower your voice sir, or else everyone will want one.

  • Tall, blonde, dark and lean Rough and tough and strong and mean
  • by oumuamua ( 6173784 ) on Friday July 04, 2025 @10:39AM (#65496622)
    Uruguay, where screw worms are endemic is looking to get rid of them permanently with a gene drive:

    Using the genome-editing system CRISPR, they’ve developed what’s known as a gene drive, a type of genetic element that manipulates the reproductive process to spread farther and faster than an ordinary gene. They are about to move into the next stage of caged trials in the lab, with a view to eventually using the genetic tool to decimate the screwworm fly population. In collaboration with Institut Pasteur de Montevideo, they have received a $450,000 grant from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) for the research.

    https://www.technologyreview.c... [technologyreview.com]

    • by higuita ( 129722 )

      In South America, due the huge size of tropical forest, is much harder to do the sterilized male flies method, Central America being thin and North America is mostly too cold for all year flies surviving, helped a lot in this having success. But in the south, other methods are needed and gene editing may be helpful, even if it may not solve the problem, may help it make less prevalent

  • I hope they have an option 2 and 3, because killing anything that mates with x is a guaranteed way to create sexual selection.
  • If eradicating these flies is acceptable, why not mosquitos? [slashdot.org] There are certainly ecosystem impacts from removing the flies, the question it seems to me is, "Are they acceptable?" Apparently yes. How did they arrive at these conclusions - just test it and see? Or was the benefit worth whatever the costs to the ecosystem?

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