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Texas Opens New Front Against Flesh-Eating Flies
10 Feb
Summary
- New facility in Texas aims to stop screwworm flies from entering U.S.
- Sterile male flies will mate with wild females to prevent infestations.
- A new $750 million factory for breeding flies is under construction.
A pivotal facility for combating the New World screwworm fly has opened in Edinburg, Texas, on February 9, 2026. This center is designed to disperse sterile male screwworm flies, preventing the flesh-eating parasite from crossing the Mexican border and endangering American livestock. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott inaugurated the facility, highlighting a collaborative federal and state effort.
The strategy involves releasing millions of sterile male flies bred in Mexico or Panama. These males mate with wild females, ensuring their eggs do not hatch into harmful maggots. This method previously helped eradicate the pest from U.S. soil by the early 1970s, with only a minor outbreak in 2017.
A new, larger $750 million factory for breeding sterile flies in Texas is slated for completion by the end of 2027. Additionally, a facility in southern Mexico is being converted to breed screwworm flies starting this summer. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is also investing $21 million for this conversion and offering up to $100 million in grants for related pest control projects.
