USDA entomologist Edward Knipling identifies Cochliomyia hominivorax as a distinct, eradicable species — laying the scientific groundwork for the sterile insect technique.

The Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) is successfully demonstrated on the island of Curaçao, eliminating the local screwworm population and proving the method works at scale.

USDA launches the New World Screwworm eradication program across the Southeast United States, mass-rearing and releasing sterile flies by the hundreds of millions.

The United States is officially declared free of the New World screwworm — one of the most successful agricultural pest eradication efforts in history.

The joint U.S.–Mexico screwworm eradication effort expands southward through Mexico, pushing the sterile fly barrier progressively toward Central America.

Mexico is declared officially free of the New World screwworm, extending the biosecurity zone to the Guatemala border.

The biological barrier of sterile fly releases is established at the Darién Gap on the Panama–Colombia border, forming the permanent firewall protecting North America.

A screwworm outbreak is detected in Key deer in the Florida Keys — the first U.S. detection in decades. Emergency sterile fly releases successfully eliminate it within months.

Reports of screwworm detections in cattle in Mexico and parts of Central America raise concern about the integrity of the Panama barrier program amid funding and logistical pressures.

USDA confirms the New World screwworm in a calf in Texas — triggering federal and state emergency biosecurity protocols across the Southwest.