Flesh - use up screwworms have already taken out over 100 of Florida ’s central cervid subspecies and continues to threaten the country ’s stock . Fortunately , scientists and some sterile flies are here to keep start the twenty-four hours .
Last calendar month , the US Department of Agriculture ( USDA)issued a statementconfirming the New World screwworm had been discover in numerous islands of the Florida Keys . These fell larvae bury into the flesh of warm - blooded mammalian , such as wild cervid , farm animal , cats , dogs , and occasionally humans . The larvae typically get to the animal by the flies laying eggs in small unresolved wound , where the maggots then eat the creature animated using their corkscrew - comparable tips and fangs . If left untreated , it ’s often fatal .
The USDA sum that they have already unfreeze a handful of sterile flies to avail harness the issue . They now say they are in full golf shot of put out over 3 million sterile male flies doubly a calendar week to prevent further spread out , BBC Newsreports .
The diminutive fangs of the screwworm dig into flesh . UJohn Kucharski / US Department of Agriculture / Flickr(CC BY 2.0 )
Scientists start by breeding million of the flies . They then “ zap ” the males with radiation syndrome to make them sterile . The logic follow that when these sterile male Paraguay tea with females , they do not produce any eggs , and the population subsequently crashes .
introduce unimaginative flies is a stress and tested method that the USDA have used before . It was in the beginning carry out in 1958 and managed to successfully wipe out the species from the US by the sixties . However , these mini - menaces have manage to claw their path back into the US for the first time in 30 years . The origin of this plague is unknown , although the screwworm is still widely see in most South American land and five Caribbean countries .
The situation has been depict as anagricultural province of emergencyin Monroe County because of its threat to livestock . Another major business organisation is its terror toKey deer , a particularly cute subspecies of white - tailed deer that can now only be found in certain pockets of the Florida Keys . For now , the USDA is hop the sterile flies can do their matter and dampen the spread of these awful minuscule maggots .
