MONROE COUNTY, Fla. — Biologists with the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District (FKMCD) are releasing lab-modified mosquitoes twice a week in the Middle Keys.
It’s part of a pilot program to reduce the population and help stop people from getting bitten.
“They’re male Aedes aegypti,” said Dr. Larry Hribar, FKMCD Director of Research. “They’re infected with a mosquito parasite that’s in the genus Wolbachia.”
There are dozens of species of blood suckers in South Florida, including the nuisance salt marsh mosquito found in mangroves and in the Everglades.
But it’s the Aedes aegypti that carries diseases like Zika and dengue.
“That’s the one that vector the diseases we worry about,” said FKMCD spokesperson Chad Huff.
The males, shipped from a company called MosquitoMate, have been infected with the Wolbachia bacteria before mating with females after being released.
“They’ll find a local female, they’ll mate, but the eggs she produces are not going to be viable,” Hribar said.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, the lab-infected mosquitoes can’t make people or animals sick.
The Florida Keys has been a bug battleground.
In 2021, biotech firm Oxitec engineered mosquitoes to carry a gene that causes their offspring to die. It was the very first open-air test of genetically-modified mosquitoes ever in the United States.
“Oxitec, anecdotally, where it was used did work,” Huff said.
In the Keys, like elsewhere in South Florida, crews use tools like daily surveillance, mosquito-killing fish, as well as helicopters and trucks for spraying chemicals.
But scientists say chemicals can lose their effectiveness.
“We’re seeing this worldwide: there’s been a development of resistance toward the pesticides that we’re using,” Hribar said. “So we need non-chemical means of control.”
FKMCD will evaluate the use of the infected mosquitoes in the coming months.
“The district has been very adamant to try our new and novel techniques,” Huff said. “We’re hoping that this test shows that this will be a useful addition to our arsenal.”
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