One member of Congress alone has limited power in an emergency at the scale of the screwworm outbreak, and federal and state officials are mobilizing resources. And there are plenty of powerful members from West and South Texas who are engaged and able to ask questions directly to federal personnel.
But given the high-profile federal response and importance of the cattle industry to the district’s economy, the lack of a representative could hamper constituents’ ability to get information or be heard.
Absent a representative, both candidates to replace Gonzales are trying to convene ranchers, get information from the federal government and get information to people in the district — without the title of “Representative” next to their names that affords more information access.
When he was in office, Gonzales led the introduction of a House bill, cosponsored by the majority of the Texas delegation and included members of both parties, to establish a facility to grow sterile New World screwworm flies in areas at risk of infection — though the bill never received a vote.
Gonzales also launched a screwworm working group with federal personnel, state stakeholders and ranchers, and was on site when Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced a plan to eliminate New World screwworm last June.
USDA did break ground on a sterile fly facility in Edinburg in April, flanked by Republican Sen. John Cornyn and Republican U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz, but the facility is not yet operational, though Rollins has pledged to fasttrack its opening.
Do you know what screw worms are?
They’re blowflies with a parasitic larval stage. The flies land on cattle, usually areas where they have a hard time biting or grooming, and lay their eggs in a wound. This is unusual, given that most blowflies lay their eggs in festering, putrid carcasses. These guys prefer hosts that are still alive. In fact, they prefer to attack soft, vulnerable areas. Like the eyes, the peritoneum, or even the bellybuttons of newborn calves.
In that wound, these maggots–roughly 2/3 of an inch long (or 17mm)–will hatch. Wanna know how they get their name? Their little mouth hooks act like the points of woodscrews. Their bodies have little ridges, like a woodscrew. They will burrow deeper into infected flesh, like a woodscrew. Deeper, deeper, deeper, to get to richer blood and flesh. And when they mature, they shred that flesh on the way out. A single female can lay up to 500 eggs in a single landing.
Did I mention they can infect dogs, cats, and humans? Especially babies and disabled people who spend their time outside?
Personally? Fuck whatever their politics are, no one deserves that kind of torture. Flystrike does NOT give a shit.