The U.S. government is preparing to breed billions of flies and drop them from airplanes over Southern Texas and Mexico

• The U.S. government plans to breed billions of sterile male New World screwworm flies to allegedly combat a flesh-eating pest threatening livestock, wildlife, and potentially humans.

• to accomplish this, a new fly factory in Texas ($8.5 million) will open by year-end, and a facility in southern Mexico ($21 million) is planned for July 2026 to breed 400 million flies weekly.

• The screwworm fly’s larvae can devastate cattle, wildlife, and pets, with rare human infestations, prompting a U.S. import ban on live cattle, horses, and bison from Mexico until mid-September 2025.

• The U.S. eradicated the pest decades ago using sterile fly releases, with a Panama facility containing it until its recent migration to southern Mexico; but now they’re back.

• The initiative is led by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and involves collaboration with the Panama-United States Commission for the Eradication and Prevention of Cattle Screwworms.