The New World screwworm fly was the first species on which the sterile insect technique was tested and then applied in a natural environment, resulting in the control and systematic eradication of this species from North and Central America, as well as parts of the Caribbean since the 1950s.

The maggots are capable of causing severe tissue damage or even death to the host.

[3] The Floridian government instituted control measures including mandatory inspections of all animals leaving the area; the outbreak was declared as neutralized in March 2017.

Campaigns against the flies continue in Mexico, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, and Jamaica with financial assistance from the United States Department of Agriculture, which is trying to push the parasite south of the narrow Isthmus of Panama.

[5] From the Greek kochlias (snail with a spiral shell) + myia (fly) and the Latin hominis (man) + vorax (consuming), Cochliomyia hominivorax, or the New World screwworm fly (formerly Callitroga (Greek kallos, (beautiful), + trogein, (to gnaw), Americana), was first described by French entomologist Charles Coquerel in 1858.