For a real scare this Halloween, you can turn your gaze to the southern border, where voracious, carnivorous maggots are festering and have taken to eating people’s pets.
This week, the New World Screwworm (NWS) infestation spread to a third state, Arizona, joining New Mexico and Texas in the grip of these horrible pests. To date, 74 animal cases have been identified in the United States since the flies re-invaded the country in June.
Flies lay hundreds of eggs in animals’ wounds and moist orifices, and the resulting voracious worms feast on their victims. The maggots resemble screws and burrow and twist tortuously into living flesh, causing serious, sometimes fatal, injuries before falling to the ground to develop into adults.
Because of their ability to ravage livestock, the flies were eliminated from the country in the 1960s through the aerial release of sterile male flies, which prevented successful breeding. For years, they were kept at bay by a biological barrier along the Darién Gap on the border of Panama and Colombia. But the barrier was breached in 2022 and the flies returned to the United States via Central America.
Nobody is safe
Although they are widely considered a threat to the livestock industry, they can also devastate wildlife, pets and, in rarer cases, humans. According to the latest data from the Mexican Ministry of Health, the country has confirmed 806 cases of human luctose infestations since the re-emergence of these flies. Nine people died from wild maggots.
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