Key New World Screwworm: The Parasite That Eats You Alive…

Meet the New World screwworm. Sounds like a metal band. Acts like a horror movie. This fly does not wait for you to die. Its babies prefer living flesh. Yes, yours. Or your dog’s. Or a newborn calf’s. TheLatin nameeven translates to “man eater.” Cozy. A recentMarylandcase put it back on the U. S. map. The infection was travel associated and linked to the wider Central America and Mexico outbreak. Public well-being officials say the risk to the general public remains very low, but the cringe factor is off the charts. Meanwhile, Mexico just reported a bovine case in Nuevo León close to our border, which has both countries on alert. The adult new world screwwormflysmells an open wound. She lands. She lays. Within hours the eggs hatch. The maggots burrow inward and eat as they go. The wound enlarges. More flies arrive for the all-you-can-eat buffet. After about a week, the larvae drop out and pupate in the soil. A new fly climbs back into the world days to weeks later, timing set by heat and humidity. Nature, you are creative and rude. *Female screwworms are basicallymonogamous. One mate for life. Weirdly nutritious, except for the flesh eating part. This quirk let scientists design a control program that changed history. *The name “screwworm” comes from the way the larvae twist into flesh like a tinycorkscrew. They have ringed bodies with little backward spines and evil looking mouth hooks. Charming. *One female can lay roughly 200 to 300eggsat a time. She often picks the edge of a wound or a moist opening. The umbilical stump of newborn animals is a favorite. Eggs can hatch in as little as 12 hours. *These maggots prefer health-supporting living tissue. Not the rotting stuff most flies like. Again, rude. Backstory time. In the mid 20th century, U. S. scientistsbuilt a programthat mass reared screwworm flies, sterilized the males with radiation, then released them in ridiculous numbers. Females mate once. If she mates with a sterile male, no viable babies. Do that at scale and the population collapses. It worked so well the parasite was eradicated from the U. S. by 1966 and pushed south to a permanent barrier at the Darién in Panama. Florida’s 2016 outbreak in Essential deer was cleaned up with the same strategy. Central America and Mexico have hada resurgencein animals, which creates spillover risk through travel, trade, and wildlife movement. The U. S. and Panama maintain a joint barrier program and the USDA is now building out new sterile fly capacity in Texas to harden the border. We are talking hundreds of millions of sterile flies per week when needed. I know. That is a lot of flies. It is also how you keep a flesh eater out. *More sterile fly releases along the border if Mexico’s northern cases tick up. *Vet alerts asking ranchers and pet owners to examine any wound that will not heal or that looks unusually wet, painful, or wriggly. (You are welcome for that visual.) Quick responses to any U. S. detection. We have the playbook. We have the flies. We like our skin. Can people catch it here from the air. Not how it works. The fly needs an open wound and warm bodies. The current U. S. risk is very low, and control programs are active. If you have a travel wound that is not healing, go be seen. #don’tbeahero. CIDRAPHow do I protect pets. Keep wounds clean and covered. Check after outdoor play, especially nose, ears, tail base, and any hot spots. If you see a moving white rice party in a wound, do not Google at 2 a. m. Call the vet. Texas Farm BureauWhy “man eater.”Because the species name hominivorax means exactly that. A biologist with a sense of theater named it. Tellus If you have a screwworm story and you are willing to talk about it, email me. If you are a USDA or COPEG scientist, come on Causes or Cures and tell us how you plan to outfly a parasite. I will bring curiosity and coffee. You bring the sterile flies. ************************************************************** Other gems from WTF NEWS Section: Malaria in New Jersey? A Weird Comeback Case How a Woman in Texas Died from Her Sinus Rinse You can contact Dr. Eeks atbloomingwellness. com. Follow Eeks onInstagramhere. OrFacebookhere. OrX. OnYoutube. OrTikTok. SUBSCRIBE to her monthly newsletter here!(Now featuring interviews with top experts on physical wellness you care about!)