M3 Agriculture Technologies
ES
Two people beside an open X-RAD 320 X-ray irradiator with its X-RAY ON light lit

How sterile flies are made with X-rays instead of cobalt-60, and who can help put the capacity in the field.

STERILE
FLY

How SIT works on screwworm

A female screwworm mates once in her life. If a female mates with a sterile male, then no offspring are produced. SIT leverages screwworm’s biology to eradicate the species over time.

Female. Drawn to open wounds and mucosal openings on livestock and wildlife.

Eggs laid. 100 to 300 per shingle-like clutch at the wound edge. 2,000 to 3,000 over her life.

Hatch. 12 to 24 hours, about 20 on average, among the fastest of any livestock pest.

Penetrate. Larvae enter living tissue at once. The screwworm cannot develop in dead tissue.

Feed. Dense aggregations cause escalating myiasis over 5 to 7 days. Untreated cases are fatal.

Pupate. Mature larvae drop to the soil for 7 to 54 days, depending on temperature.

Adult. Flies emerge and disperse. A population can double in one to two months and push its range 1.2 to 1.9 km a day.

Mate. Once, and the cycle restarts. A sterile mate breaks it here.

NWS INFECTION CYCLE FEMALEfinds wound EGGS LAID100 to 300 a clutch HATCH12 to 24 hours PENETRATEliving tissue FEED5 to 7 days PUPATE7 to 54 days ADULTemerges MATEonce
Rows of insect rearing cages in an M3 facility
RearColonies are reared in biosecure modules on a controlled cycle. Pupae are batched and timed to the pupal window, so every insect in a canister receives the same dose.
An X-ray irradiator chamber loaded with insect canisters
SterilizeA calibrated X-ray dose makes the flies sterile. Each run is logged with traceable dosimetry.
A piloted sterile fly release aircraft in a hangar
ReleaseEvery batch passes hatch, mating competitiveness, and flight tests before release by ground, drone, or fixed-wing aircraft into USDA’s release polygons. Sterile flies overflood the wild population.

How a sterile fly is made

The method that cleared the screwworm from the United States in 1966 is the method that clears it again. Three steps, each behind a quality gate.

Live outbreak map

From cobalt-60 to X-ray

In 1951 and 1953 Bushland and Hopkins showed that X-rays and gamma rays give screwworm flies the same sterility and mating competitiveness. Cobalt-60 then won on cost for 70 years.

The reasons to switch back are everything around the machine. A cobalt-60 source decays with a half-life of 5.27 years, is licensed, guarded, shielded, and shipped under radioactive-material rules, and its supply has tightened since 2022. An X-ray irradiator is inert when switched off, runs on electrical power, and registers with the state radiation program.

Gamma, cobalt-60

Radioactive source
Yes
Decays, needs recharge
Yes, 5.27-year half-life
Licensing
Federal license

X-ray SIT

Radioactive source
No
Decays, needs recharge
No
Licensing
State registration

What it takes, and who can help

Modular X-ray capacity reaches the field when the people who carry the risk ask for it. Four groups can move it.

  1. 01  Federal programs

    USDA APHIS and the New World Screwworm Grand Challenge can contract modular X-ray capacity alongside Moore Air Base and Metapa. The DOE/NNSA Office of Radiological Security can keep backing the move away from radioactive sources.

  2. 02  States

    Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona can offer host sites and power, move radiation registration quickly, direct emergency funds, and coordinate releases through their state veterinarians.

  3. 03  Producers and associations

    Cattle, deer, and wildlife groups, and the veterinarians who serve them, can write letters of support, open sites along the front, and report every suspect wound to the state veterinarian.

  4. 04  Congress and tribal governments

    Appropriations and authorization language that names X-ray sterile insect capacity. Tribal lands and governments as host sites and partners.

Support the plan

One email starts a letter of support, a site conversation, or a program review.

[email protected]

  • Write a letter of support for modular X-ray capacity
  • Host a module grid near the front
  • Add modular capacity to your program

Email M3Screwworm overview