Billions of Sterile Flies Air-Dropped Over Texas to Thwart Flesh-Eating Larvae

Where Panama’s fly factory churned out insects by the billion, the U.S. now builds a new screwworm fly facility in Mexico, launching a fly distribution hub in southern Texas by year’s end. Searches spike for “How do sterile insects control pests?” and “Can maggots eat live animals?” Picture a thousand-pound cow versus a microscopic army of sterilized wingmen; as Michael Bailey warns, “A thousand-pound bovine can be dead from this in two weeks.”
Sterile flies, 2 billion strong, rain from planes over Texas in a USDA plan to stop flesh-eating maggots—answering “How do you get rid of screwworms?” and “Is fly sterilization safe?” Picture a fly factory outproducing most tech startups.