The Department of Agriculture is pursuing a disgusting—but effective—strategy to eliminate the larva of the New World screwworm fly.

The U.S. government is preparing to breed billions of flies and dump them out of airplanes over Mexico and southern Texas to fight a flesh-eating maggot. That sounds like the plot of a horror movie, but it is part of the government’s plans for protecting the U.

The U.S. government plans to release billions of sterilized flies over Mexico and southern Texas to fight a flesh-eating pest that threatens livestock and wildlife.