The Verily company, part of the Alphabet group that also includes Google, has proposed a new biological program to control mosquitoes in the US. The plan calls for the gradual release of 64 million specially bred male mosquitoes over two years in California and Florida to reduce the spread of diseases carried by these insects, including West Nile virus and dengue fever.
The proposal has already caused a strong public reaction in the US. Some citizens fear that the mass release of mosquitoes could disrupt the local ecosystem, affect the food chain and reduce the available food for birds, lizards and other animals that feed on insects. Claims that technology companies are using mosquitoes for secret experiments have also appeared on social networks, while some politicians are warning about the unknown consequences of this kind of interference with nature.
Google mosquitoes use bacteria for population control
However, the mosquitoes that Verily plans to release are not the same as wild mosquitoes that bite people and carry disease. These are specially bred males, and male mosquitoes feed on nectar and do not suck blood. Their role is to mate with wild females, but with a key difference: they carry the bacterium Wolbachia, which prevents the eggs from developing normally after mating.
If this procedure is repeated long enough, the number of dangerous mosquito species can gradually decrease. The aim is to reduce the populations of mosquitoes such as Culex quinquefasciatus and Aedes aegypti, which can transmit diseases to humans.
This technology is not entirely new. Similar programs have already been tested in several countries. In Singapore, according to sources, the number of Aedes mosquitoes in certain zones has been reduced by more than 80 percent, while the risk of dengue infections has fallen by more than 70 percent. In Brazil, some pilot programs have been linked to large reductions in more severe dengue outcomes, while earlier smaller tests in California showed a more than 90 percent drop in the number of female mosquitoes biting people.
This is why the debate over the Verily plan is fierce. On the one hand, there is a real public fear of ecological consequences and insufficiently explained biological interventions. On the other hand, proponents claim that the method is more precise than mass spraying with insecticides and could reduce the risk of disease without directly poisoning the environment.
Verily is now awaiting regulatory approval from the US Environmental Protection Agency. If the plan is accepted, California and Florida could become the next big test-zone for the “mosquito-anti-mosquito” approach.