Man-eating flies can be called bloodthirsty drills, nearly a million livestock are eaten alive, experts turn the tide of the tide to turn the tide of the killer man-eating fly habits of man-eating flies humans are also the host of man-eating flies, human-eating flies flooding caused by the "zombie deer" epidemic man-eating flies have caused a devastating blow to American agriculture Man-eater flies have caused immeasurable economic losses The turning point of the human-fly war followed by the "fly" plan officially implemented the sterile man-eating flies in the end

This popular science article contains pictures of fly maggots, so readers who are uncomfortable with this should read it with caution.

Man-eating flies

<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > out of place man-eating flies</h1>

I once wrote a popular science article, briefly introduced the scavenger army in the forest, of which wild boars, bears, crows and other creatures are industrious forest scavengers, and the carrion of many animals is decomposed by them, but in fact, fly maggots are also important scavenging forces.

There are currently more than 3,200 species of flies in the world, and their larvae are called maggots. These maggots are basically scavengers, but one of them is a fly maggot that seems out of place because they feed on the fresh flesh of thermostatic animals.

These flies are called New World spiral flies, also known as man-eating flies, and their maggots are called flesh-eating spiral maggots.

<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > habits of the man-eating fly</h1>

Man-eating flies have a very special habit of circling outdoors to find small wounds in thermostatic animals, and then laying eggs in the wounds, which can lay 200 to 300 eggs at a time, and hatch into maggots after a few days.

These maggots have two sharp teeth on their heads and spiral-shaped barb protrusions on their bodies, leaving their tails at the wound to breathe air, constantly nibbling and digging inside the host, feeding on the host's fresh muscles and blood, making the wound constantly fester and inflame.

Maggots are like a bloodthirsty drill that can nibble away at the thermostatic animal host in a week's time.

Meat maggots

<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > humans are also hosts of man-eating flies</h1>

Humans are also thermostatic animals, so humans are also the hosts of man-eating flies, and the name of the man-eating fly is also derived from this.

When no wound is found to lay eggs, the man-eating fly will take advantage of the fact that people are not paying attention to lay eggs in non-closed holes such as eyes, mouth, ear canal, nose, etc., which is overwhelming.

Eight years ago, a British tourist named Harris returned to the UK by plane after playing in Peru in South America, and on the plane she found that there was a sound of nibbling in the ear canal, and she also had symptoms of migraines, which she thought was an uncomfortable reaction to flying and did not pay attention to it.

Peru

Harris

After returning home, her ear canal began to flow out of the smelly secretion, she rushed to the hospital for examination, thinking that she had ordinary otitis media, but after the doctor's examination, she found dozens of maggots in her ear canal.

At this time, she realized that when playing in Peru, she may have been parasitized by local man-eating flies, and after the doctor removed the maggots in the ear canal one by one, she found that these maggots had bitten out of the ear canal into a blood hole of about 1 cm.

If you treat it one step later, the consequences are unimaginable and can be life-threatening at any time.

Flesh-eating maggots in Harris' ears

<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the proliferation of man-eating flies caused by the "zombie deer" epidemic</h1>

Humans encounter the attack parasite of man-eating flies, and the discomfort can be cured immediately, and for wild animals or domestic animals that cannot speak, the man-eating fly is their ultimate nightmare.

Five years ago, in September, a group of strangely shaped "zombie deer" appeared on Key West Island, Florida, USA, they were scarred, covered with parasitic holes for insects and rat bites, some deer heads were even eaten away, and some organs on the body had been nibbled clean, and they were all parasitized by man-eating flies.

Parasitic reef deer

The U.S. Department of Agriculture determined that there had been an outbreak of man-eating flies in Monroe County, where Key West is located, and the wounds of these reef deer had been severely infected and festered, and there was no cure, and there was no need for treatment, and 83 reef deer died of the epidemic.

To know that the reef island deer is on the verge of extinction, this time the dead reef deer accounted for almost one-tenth of the existing population, the local people are distressed, hate the man-eating fly to the bone.

< h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > man-eating flies have dealt a devastating blow to American agriculture</h1>

In fact, as early as around 1900, man-eating flies began to invade most countries in the Americas, and local farmers knew the terrible things about man-eating flies. In the decades that followed, millions of livestock were infected with man-eating flies, and people had to watch as they fell to the ground and died.

At the time, the man-eating fly had become a stumbling block to agricultural development, dealing an unprecedented blow to livestock, wildlife and humans on farms, and when the man-eating flies took shape, corpses were strewn everywhere they went.

In order to control man-eating flies, people have tried everything to prevent and control them, but because they live in groups in the wild and cannot use physical means such as violet lights or artificial culling, the use of insecticides to kill flies is also a drop in the bucket.

Parasitic sheep

< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > man-eating flies have caused immeasurable economic losses</h1>

At that time, the way to prevent man-eating flies was to intervene in the early stage of artificial screening, find parasitic cattle and sheep, and manually remove maggots, but this is an extremely tedious work, the parasitic entrance is obscured by animal hair, if there is an omission, there are fly maggots that have not been found, and the parasitic livestock are still difficult to escape.

In the 1930s, nearly 200,000 livestock died from man-eating flies in Texas, and in the 1950s, the economic losses caused by man-eating flies in the United States amounted to more than $220 million.

Today, although the man-eating fly has long been controlled, there are still small-scale man-eating fly outbreaks in some areas, and the annual damage is still as high as millions of dollars.

Parasitic cattle

<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > turning point in the human-fly war</h1>

Since then, scientists in various fields have been looking for ways to kill man-eating flies, but with little success.

It wasn't until 1946 that the turning point in the human-fly war finally came, when entomologist Edward M. Thompson of the American Institute of Agriculture said that the entomologist of the American Institute of Agriculture had finally arrived. While studying a book called Fruit Fly, F. Naplin had an epiphany and found the killer weapon to subdue the man-eating fly.

Edward P. F. Neplin

The book's first author, the 1946 Nobel Laureate: geneticist Herman Joseph Mueller, mentions that nuclear radiation can cause fruit flies to lose their ability to reproduce.

Edward had the idea that fruit flies and man-eating flies belonged to the same species of flies, and that they had to go through the egg, larval, pre-pupa, pupae, and adult stages.

Is it also possible to carry out nuclear radiation on maggots, make them infertile, and then release sterile man-eating flies back into the wild to mate with normal man-eating flies, so that the man-eating flies will not have "flies" from the root?

Sterile man-eating flies

<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > the successor no "fly" plan was officially implemented</h1>

This idea proved to be completely feasible, the female man-eating fly can only mate once in a lifetime, and releasing the infertile man-eating fly into the wild can cut off the reproductive cycle of the man-eating fly from the root.

Subsequently, the factories specializing in the breeding of sterile maggots in various countries are dotted, and the trays in the incubation room are filled with sterile maggots, which are fed artificial meat feed and receive nuclear radiation after two days.

Manufacture of sterile man-eating flies

<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > sterile man-eating fly</h1>

After decades of stocking control, the United States basically eliminated the man-eating fly in the early 1980s. Ten years later, Mexico also declared the man-eating fly extinct in the country. In the 1990s, the man-eating fly epidemic in Libya was also effectively controlled through the release of sterile man-eating flies.

Factories in the Americas that produce sterile man-eating flies now hatch at least 20 million sterile man-eating flies a day, and the income from the sale of sterile man-eating flies alone can reach more than a billion dollars a year.

Although this method effectively extinguished man-eating flies, there were still small outbreaks of man-eating flies in some areas, such as the parasitic incident of reef deer just mentioned, when the United States immediately released more than 80 million sterile man-eating flies, and the effect was immediate.

Sterile man-eating fly factory

< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > last</h1>

Flies are an annoying creature, most of the body is stained with a variety of pathogenic bacteria, and the man-eating fly is even more reclusive, when you travel in a foreign country, you must beware of this orange-red-eyed man-eating fly. The picture comes from the network intrusion link must be deleted.

How man-eating flies infect humans