In case you missed one more way in which 2016 is almost laughably cursed, over 130 endangered deer were found dead in Florida from Cochliomyia hominovorax, or New World Screw Worm Fly.
This is big, because the United States spent millions of dollars and countless work hours completely exterminating this fly from our entire continent in 1982. It has been 34 years since these flies have been encountered on U.S. soil.
This effort was because, unlike most flies, hominovorax lays its eggs in open wounds on living flesh, and kills animals as large as cattle through traumatic tissue loss. This is not like the parasitic bot fly, which is normally nonlethal and can even be almost painless. This fly outright devours you.
You may recognize that hominovorax literally means “man eating” and yes they will attack humans given the opportunity.
