Live tracker · Texas & New Mexico

New World Screwworm Tracker

The worm is back — tracking it with facts, not fear.

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⚠️ Independent educational prototype. Not affiliated with any government agency. Data is summarized from public sources and may be incomplete or out of date. Always verify with official USDA APHIS and Texas Animal Health Commission sources. Nothing here is veterinary, agricultural, or food-safety advice.
LIVE · OUTBREAK SITUATION

🗺️ Detections & Affected Areas

🔎 Sourcing Context Lookup

Enter a restaurant chain or major grocer to see a neutral summary of its publicly reported beef sourcing, with a source link and a map of any named facilities relative to detections. General context only — not a safety assessment. ~70 brands loaded (Taco Bell, Texas Roadhouse, H-E-B, Walmart, Whole Foods, and more).

✈️ Sterile-Fly Release & Low-Altitude Flights (live)

To suppress the outbreak, USDA releases millions of radiation-sterilized screwworm flies by air (the "sterile insect technique"). Release & survey aircraft fly repetitive low grid patterns. This map live-scans community ADS-B (airplanes.live) for aircraft below ~8,500 ft over South/Central Texas, draws their trails, and auto-flags survey-style grid patterns. Filter between grid-only, maybe-relevant, and all low aircraft; click any plane to share it. Refreshes ~every 30s.

▦ survey-style grid pattern other low aircraft⭐ watch-listed (e.g. N72L)

⚠️ Shows low-flying aircraft (crop-dusters, training, medical, charter, survey, etc.) — most unrelated to screwworm operations, none officially confirmed. Pattern detection is a heuristic. See Screwworm.gov.

🪰 Screwworm Life Cycle

Females lay eggs at the edge of a wound; larvae (the "screwworms") burrow into living tissue, then drop to the soil to pupate and emerge as adult flies. Recognizing it early and reporting it is key.

Eggs
Larva
(screwworm)
Pupa
Adult fly

Diagram is illustrative. For official identification photos, see the USDA APHIS Story Map.

🚧 Quarantine & Zone Info

Summarized from Texas Animal Health Commission and USDA APHIS public statements.

🏭 Major Texas Beef Packers

Publicly known beef processors near the region (contextual reference only). Inclusion does not imply any facility is connected to the current situation.

🗂️ Grid-Pattern Archive ▸ show

📚 Official Sources

⚠️ Reminder: For general awareness and education only — not a substitute for official guidance. Beef in the U.S. is subject to USDA/FSIS inspection; this site does not evaluate food safety and makes no claims about any specific product, brand, or retailer. Always rely on official agencies for decisions.