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They want to do what? A Google proposal to release 32 million mosquitoes in California and Florida might prompt double-takes.
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. Male mosquitos can’t bite humans.
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.
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.
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 at https://debug.com.
“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.
This story was written by Kathleen Kirkwood for Bay City News Service.
This might sound like a stupid question (but I someone I met once told me there are no stupid questions, and if one person is wondering it there are probably 10 more who wonder but don’t ask).
Question: Can being bitten by a bunch of sterilized male mosquitos run a risk of… sterilizing the person who gets bitten (male or female)?
If not, how do we know? (Based on what assumptions or evidence?) Is there a study that can be cited showing that such “experimental use” of “lab-bred male mosquitoes infected with a naturally-occurring bacteria” does NOT cause sterility among humans who get bitten by them repeatedly throughout one or more summers? What on earth is in the added bacteria that makes mosquitos (but not other bological life) unable to reproduce?
The fact that it’s experimental, and lab-made, and branded as “good”, doesn’t really instill confidence.
I’m sure I’m just asking a stupid question. I’d just like to know if there are any safety studies, and what their citations are, so I can read them and put that notion to rest. Because experimenting with nature for our collective betterment is great and all, but every time a mega corporation wants to control what pierces my skin in an experimental manner, I get the heebie-jeebies for some strange reason.