It is an extraordinary plan, but quite real: to stop the invasion of Lucilie Boucheère, a tropical fly whose larvae devour living tissue, in particular cattle, the American government relaunches a technique already successfully used in the 1960s to 1980s. The idea is simple: producing the billions of male flies in the laboratory, sterilizing them by plane, then launching them threatened.
Find all the Tangwall Campagin antishers
By mating with wild females, these males will make their offspring impossible. No fertilized eggs, no larvae: the population will gradually turn off. A solution that is both ecological and targeted, which avoids the massive use of pesticides.
A carnivorous insect
The targeted species, Cochliomyia hominivorax – nicknamed “Libya fly” Or Lucilie Bouchère – is feared by veterinarians. Its particularity? Females lay their eggs in the open wounds of animals (or humans).
Once hatching, the larvae introduce themselves under the skin and feed on living flesh, causing intense suffering, severe infections, sometimes the death of the host. According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, an infestation can kill a 400 kg cattle in two weeks. The stake is therefore major for breeders.
The return of a eradicated scourge
Long absent from the North American continent, this fly had been completely eliminated from the United States and Mexico in the late 1980s thanks to the sterile male method. But it reappeared in 2022 in Panama, then quickly went up north. At the end of 2024, Mexico recorded its first cases. Now, Texas and Florida know each other under threat.
Several causes would explain this return:
- Global warming, which widens the survival area of the species
- Cross -border transport of infected animals
- And a possible behavioral evolution of females, which could avoid certain sterile males
Massive mobilization in progress
To stop the invasion, the United States takes action. Currently, a factory in Panama already produces more than 100 million sterile flies each week. But it remains insufficient. In the 1980s, up to 500 million individuals per week were necessary to contain the scourge in Mexico.
The USDA (the US Ministry of Agriculture) therefore released $ 21 million to convert an old fruit flies factory to Metapa, in the south of Mexico. It is expected to produce 60 to 100 million sterile mouthwashed lucilies per week from July 2026. In parallel, a Logistics Center in Texas will be ready by the end of 2025, to ensure the storage and release of flies by plane.
The success of the program will not be immediate. Between breeding, sterilization, transport and air dispersion, deadlines are incompressible. In the meantime, veterinarians recall the importance of antiparasitic treatments, livestock surveillance, and the training of professionals.
This remains a major challenge: “A whole generation has never known this fly”recall the researchers. What complicate early detection. Above all, the current weather conditions – warmer and weaker – could make eradication more difficult than in the past. The fight against this carnivorous insect promises to be longer, more expensive, but it is crucial to preserving the agricultural economy and public health on the entire American continent.
