California set to unleash 20M infected mosquitoes into the air. Here’s why

If you’re heading to California this summer, you may notice a swarm of bacteria-infected mosquitoes in the air.

That’s because the government, along with a Google parent company called Verily Life Sciences, are releasing 20 million infected mosquitoes into some west coast neighbourhoods. But don’t worry, these mosquitoes are males and don’t bite.

The initiative, called Debug Fresno, is meant to reduce the population of disease-carrying mosquitoes.

How does it work?

The program, which was announced Friday, will slowly introduce 20-million sterile male mosquitoes into targeted areas. They will then mate with females, who do bite and spread disease. Once the infected males breed with the females, the produced eggs will not hatch.

The life cycle for this particular mosquito species, called the Aedes aegypti mosquito, is just over a week. As the infected male mosquitoes flood the area, the females will be less likely to find uninfected males to mate with, so each life cycle should lead to far fewer new mosquitoes.

All the males will be infected with a naturally occurring bacteria known as Wolbachia., which means they are not genetically modified, according to Verily’s website.

The goal is to target, and possibly eliminate, the mosquito species that carry diseases like Zika, dengue and chikungunya.

Where?

The mosquitoes are being released over a 20-week period into two neighbourhoods in Fresno, Calif., about 300 kilometres southeast of San Francisco. It’s part of a field study for the Debug Project.

“Aedes aegypti first appeared in the central valley of California in 2013, and since then has become pervasive in Fresno County,” Verily scientist Jacob Crawford wrote in a blog post.

Although these diseases are not present in Fresno, officials worry that it may only be a matter of time.

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If the trial is successful, the initiative could target the mosquitoes that transmit malaria and other diseases around the world.

“Field studies allow us to test our discoveries and technologies in challenging, real-world conditions and collect the necessary evidence to bring them to a broader scale.”

Will this happen in Canada?

Unleashing male mosquitoes infected with this bacteria is not something that will happen in Canada, according to Fiona Hunter, an entomologist at Brock University.

That’s because the infected males are species found in tropical and subtropical areas, which does not occur naturally in Canada, she said.

“We did find three specimens of Aedes aegpyti last year in Windsor, but attempts to recollect it this year has failed,” she said. “We think that it was unable to survive the winter and so if we don’t get more larvae shipped in accidentally from the south, we won’t see it again for quite some time.”

She said this method will not work with mosquitoes carrying West Nile, because they are in a different genus. Aedes aegypti males will only mate with Aedes aegypti females, she said.