They want to do what? A Google proposal to release 32 million mosquitoes in California and Florida might prompt double-takes, especially for those poor souls who serve as mosquito banquets during the summer.
The goal, however, is to “stop bad bugs with good bugs” and stymie the invasive Aedes aegypti mosquito species by releasing sterile male mosquitos into the wild, according to Google’s Debug Project.
Thus, when a wild female mosquito mates with a sterile male, her eggs won’t hatch. And the mosquito population dwindles with each generation.
According to a notice in the federal register, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is reviewing the Debug request to release up to 16 million mosquitoes annually, over a period of two years, in California and Florida.
There are more than 3,500 different species of mosquito, but just Aedes aegypti transmits most cases of dengue, Zika, yellow fever, and chikungunya.
Aedes aegypti, known as the yellow fever mosquito, is a small day-biting species with white stripes on their back and legs. They’ve become established in many areas of the state — especially southern California and the Central Valley, according to the California Department of Public Health.
There are more than 3,500 different species of mosquito, but just Aedes aegypti transmits most cases of dengue, Zika, yellow fever, and chikungunya.
Google’s application for an experimental use permit calls for using lab-bred male mosquitoes infected with a naturally-occurring bacteria called Wolbachia. The bacteria would make the male mosquitoes unable to breed with wild mosquitoes, which don’t have Wolbachia.
Building ‘good bugs’
According to the Debug website, a team of engineers and scientists are building automated rearing systems that can raise enough “good bugs” to decrease the wild mosquito population.
After separating the males from the females, which is a very slow process, the sterile males would be released into the wild.
“Male mosquitoes seek out females to mate with, finding them in places that pesticides could never reach,” according to the Debug site.
“Releasing the right number of good bugs in the right places is critical, so we’re building software and monitoring tools to guide each release. And since male mosquitoes can’t bite, people in the areas where we release them won’t get bitten any more than usual.”
According to the Debug site, there are several projects around the world looking at how sterile insect technology and Wolbachia bacteria can be used to combat mosquitoes and the diseases they transmit.
“There are projects with Aedes aegypti and Wolbachia underway in the United States, Singapore, and a number of studies with other types of mosquitoes, some dating back decades,” according to the Debug Project. “All face similar problems of how to make a broader and sustainable impact on mosquito populations and demonstrate that they can protect against mosquito borne diseases.”
The public comment period on Google’s application for an experimental use permit ends on June 5.