Who Had Flesh-Eating Worms on Their 2025 Oklahoma Bingo?

If you were hopeful of an easy transition into the new year, Mother Nature has another plan for us all. A once-eradicated man and flesh-eating "worm" is making it way back to the Southern agriculture states of Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and likely Arizona.

It's the New World Screwworm, and it's billed as a "devastating pest."

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The long and short of it... It's a fly that lays eggs in exposed tissues, and the larvae consume its host.

While that normally describes every fly and maggot in existence, what makes the New World Screwworm different is this. While maggots typically feast on dead and rotting flesh, this screwworm attacks healthy, living flesh.

While the main concern is livestock and animals, these flies will lay their flesh-eating eggs into humans as well anyway it can. Open cuts, unprotected eyes, nostrils, ears, etc...

This isn't a new concern for America. It's actually an old foe.

We have fought wars with this species of fly in America. In fact, it was the first species science was able to control through the "Sterile Insect Technique," where millions and millions of sterile male insects are released into the wild to unsuccessfully breed the next generation.

It worked too, the New World Screwworm was declared eradicated across the United States in 1982, and the battle continued well into the 1990s in the Central and South American countries, but it's slowly rebounding in numbers back to the North.

Cows suffering from this parasite were discovered in Southern Mexico last month.

It's not the first resurgence to threaten the USA.

While this parasitic fly remains endemic to the Caribbean and tropical countries of Central and South America, it has shown up recently in the contiguous United States.

As recent as 2016, this fly became a problem again in the Florida Keys. Through livestock inspection and fervent proactive measures, it was once again declared eradicated in America by March 2017.

How to avoid being a screwworms living meal.

First and foremost, clean and cover all wounds. As we move towards warmer weather, it could be a real threat. Bug spray is highly recommended.

We've beat this pest into oblivion before and we'll be the ones charged to do it again. Hopefully, by the time spring gets here, this will be old news.