I was watching some news yesterday and saw a little segment about screw worms..apparently they are gaining a foothold again in Mexico and working their way back into the us.

Don't know what a screw worm is but Ivermectin may help

New World Screw worm has re-emerged from prior eradication in 1980s-90s. It is a deadly parasitic fly that lays eggs in open wounds/orifices of mammals. The resulting maggots are live-flesh eating and do horrible damage to the host.

It is not limited to domestic livestock and was once the biggest killer of deer in the southern half of the United States...so hunters should be as concerned about its emergence as ranchers are. Old biologists I have worked with tell me horror stories about its attack on wild deer populations and lingering effects to herd characteristics.

During mid1960s, a major campaign was launched to eradicate the fly by releasing millions of sterile breeders. It worked and the fly was pushed down to Panama, declaring the US screw worm free. The adult fly has a documented range range of 180 miles and migrates into southern US from Mexico & Central America. The screw worm was recently detected in Northern Mexico this past year.

Support any USDA legislation/funding for immediate control efforts before we have another outbreak.

It sounded pretty nasty from what I read,,

It was gone about the time I came along but it was recent enough that the older folks still feared it and was adamant about checking and doctoring cattle on an almost daily basis.

Not sure about other parts of the country but we pour the cattle here when we work them I thought it was a common practice.

"Pour the Cattle"????

I remember digging screwworms out of the cattle's heads after de-horning. Pretty nasty!

Screw worms eat living flesh and will kill the host animal, unlike a maggot that eats decaying flesh.

Pour on insectide. Run them through the chute and dose them as they go by.

Pour on wormer for cattle

The title of this thread makes me think that you’re DONE with fishing and farming!!!

Nasty flies that lay eggs in any open wound and unlike bottle flies the maggots of these devils eat healthy living flesh. And not just cattle but any warm blooded mammal is fair game including humans.

They are the main reason cattle are not fire branded in the south.

Another case of screw worm in cattle was just found this week in Mexico 700 miles south of the US. The fly is moving north at a substantial pace and USDA just closed our border to all imported cattle from Mexico in efforts to slow it down.

Most concerns in this forum have been for doctoring domestic livestock with preventative pesticides, but larger worry are many millions of warm blooded mammals in the wild that can't be treated...particularly larger, widely distributed species like deer.

USDA is taking this very seriously and don't want to be blamed by game departments for letting the fly back in via livestock movement.

This worked. Lot of tax dollars. Not the end of the world. Just media blowing things out of proportion.

Hahaaha

I think I may have seen screwworms here in Illinois when I was a kid.. not entirely sure..it was around 82-83 I’m guessing… I noticed something swimming in the water when I was fishing.I saw a box turtle swimming ( which was odd in itself) and it came within 3 feet of me . I noticed it had a big ole hole in the back of its shell and maggots inside it.