Texas is gearing up for war as a savage, flesh-eating fly appears poised for a US invasion and is expanding its range of victims.

On Friday, the Texas Department of Agriculture announced the debut of TDA Swormlure, a synthetic bait designed to attract the flies with a scent that mimics open flesh wounds, which are critical to the lifecycle of the fly, called the New World Screwworm. The parasite exploits any open wound or orifice on a wide range of warm-blooded animals to feed its ravenous spawn. Female flies lay hundreds of eggs in even the tiniest abrasion. From there, screw-shaped larvae—which give the flies their name—emerge to literally twist and bore into their victim, eating them alive and causing a putrid, life-threatening lesion.

The new lure for the flies is just one of several defense efforts in Texas, which stands to suffer heavy losses from an invasion. Screwworms are a ferocious foe to many animals, but are particularly devastating to livestock.

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[–] Wheaties@hexbear.net 28 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

This is one of those early consequences of Mr. Musk's DOGE.

Some of that USAID money was for keeping those flies from spreading further north than Panama. The flies only mate once, so interrupting that was the easiest way to cap the spread. Apparently we've been continuously shipping crates of neutered males into the region for the last half century. Florida had a whole production line for it. They used warmed meat slurry to incubate the larva, then irradiated the adolescents into infertility.