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screwworm fly – Cochliomyia hominivorax

screwworm fly - Cochliomyia hominivorax

Cochliomyia hominivorax is not just any ordinary fly. Mother screwworm flies lay their eggs in open wounds, and the maggots that hatch then gorge on exposed flesh. The scourge of livestock and wildlife was eradicated in North America in the 20th century via the sterile insect technique, and it hadn’t made any new appearance in the U.S. until an outbreak in the Florida Keys in late 2016. A new article in the Journal of Medical Entomology details the response to the outbreak by entomologists and officials at local, state, national, and international levels. (Photo credit: Judy Gallagher/Flickr, CC BY 2.0)

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