American Hunter.

A New World screwworm (NWS) outbreak in Mexico has raised alarms at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which is painfully familiar with the consequences should the parasite invade the United States. The impact on livestock and wildlife—including game animals—could be devastating if the flying insect and the flesh-eating maggots it produces are not stopped before gaining entry.

On May 11 U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins announced, “The United States has ordered the suspension of livestock imports through ports of entry along our southern border after the continued spread of the New World Screwworm in Mexico…The protection of our animals and safety of our nation’s food supply is a national security issue of the utmost importance.”

An adult NWS is similar in appearance to a common fly, but according to the USDA they, “…are blue-green, have three dark stripes on their backs, and have orange eyes; they are about twice the size of a housefly.” It’s the parasite’s larval stage that threatens warm-blooded mammals.

“They drop their eggs primarily in surface wounds, but also in noses and sinus cavities. Left untreated in humans, livestock, or wild animals, the egg masses hatch into swarms of larvae—the ‘worm stage’—which embed themselves in the host’s flesh and consume the living tissue and fluids. The appearance of the larvae and the way they burrow into the host’s flesh give the screwworm its common name. Feeding screwworms enlarge the wound and attract additional female flies, which deposit more and more eggs in the wound. If the infestation remains untreated, the host animal has little chance of surviving the secondary infections that often follow,” the above-linked USDA webpage explains.

Wonderful. But there’s a way to handle these devilish things. Dropping sterilized flies into the Darien gap. But there’s one problem.

“All we needed to do was keep a flow of those planes. But the cartels were extorting money for every flight of flies that came out of Panama. They were extorting $35,000 a plane,” he said. “So, for all practical purposes, this is really kind of a political closing to make a point that they have got to get their act together.”

So you kill the cartel boss who’s extorting money for the USDA flights. Then when you try another flight and some cartel big wig tries to extort money from you, you send folks to kill him too. And so on. Until you reach the end of cartel bosses who want to perish because of fly drops.

There is no real problem that can’t be solved in this manner. The other option is to let our cattle herds be eaten alive and forswear ever eating beef again.

Which will it be?