The government plans to drop a horde of flies over Texas border. Here's why.

The United States plans to bring back a somewhat shocking, but very effective, campaign to fight a flesh-eating parasitic fly that's been sighted in Mexico.

The plan: Breed millions of sterilized flies and drop them over the Texas-Mexican border to protect the more than $100 billion U.S. cattle and beef industry from the New World screwworm.

"This can kill a thousand-pound cow in two weeks," said Dr. Michael Bailey, president-elect of the American Veterinary Medical Association. "The federal government is being very aggressive in working to contain this."

It's not as crazy as it sounds. A similar effort worked well decades ago.

As the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a release, "The U.S. has defeated NWS before and can successfully do it again."