I'm Flora Lichtenen, and you are listening to Science Friday.

Today in the podcast, an unwelcome pest has cattle ranchers entomologists and the federal government on edge, the new world screw worm fly.

It lays its eggs when you're still alive on the body. And that's, that's kind of

freaky, right? I mean, it's, it's never good to actually be eaten by an insect. And that's one of

those things that creeps people out. This fly was technically eradicated from the U.S. back in the

70s, but now an outbreak has been creeping further and further north into Central America and Mexico,

inching towards the U.S. border. This fly is notorious for laying eggs in the wounds of animals

and slowly eating its victims from the inside out. But scientists have a strategy to stop the fly,

and it involves dropping millions of bugs out of airplanes.

Here to tell us more is Dr. Sonia Swiger, entomologist and professor at Texas A&M.

Sonia, welcome to Science Friday.

Thank you.

Tell me more about these screwworms.

Are they as horrible as they sound?

Yeah, they actually are.

So, you know, as entomologists, we do try to control pests when we can, but it's not usual that we try to

eradicate these pests completely.

And this is one of those that we felt just had to be eradicated to basically better the world,

so to speak.

So, yeah, it is definitely a very bad insect to have around.

Why do they need to be eradicated?

The main reason is their impact to the industries.

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