Lab’s mosquito-killing mosquitoes legal in USA
EPA clears ‘Zap Males’ for flight in war on pests
The key to wiping out mosquitoes might just be more mosquitoes — labgrown, infected mosquitoes.
Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency approved the use of “Zap Males,” lab-grown mosquitoes infected with a natural pesticide able to reduce an area’s population of Aedes albopic
tus, a mosquito that carries the Zika virus.
Golf courses, hotels and homeowners in 20 states and Washington, D.C., will be able to release on their property Zap Males purchased from MosquitoMate, the Kentucky-based company behind them.
The approval, first reported in Na
ture, was welcomed by insect biologist David O’Brochta at the University of Maryland.
“It’s a non-chemical way of dealing with mosquitoes, so from that perspective, you’d think it would have a lot of appeal,” he told the journal. “I’m glad to see it pushed forward, as I think it could be potentially really important.”
Here’s how it works: In its laboratories, MosquitoMate raises Aedes albop
ictus mosquitoes infected with a strain of the bacterium called Wolbachia, found naturally in half of all bugs. The company sorts out the males, which don’t bite, and releases them into the wild.
There, infected males will mate with female Aedes albopictus mosquitoes. The resulting offspring, thanks to the infection, will die. Over time, mosquito populations should decline.
Other insects — even other mosquito types — won’t be affected, said MosquitoMate founder Stephen Dobson, an insect biologist at the University of Kentucky, according to Nature.
That would include Aedes aegypti, the main transmitter of Zika, which exclusively bites humans. The Aedes al-
bopictus proves more resilient in cold weather, giving it a larger range in the USA. It’s the main biting mosquito in MosquitoMate’s hometown of Lexington, the company said.
Culling a city’s mosquito population takes time, the journal reported, requiring a multiweek treatment involving millions of modified mosquitoes. Those mosquitoes could die from traditional sprays used by cities or a neighbor. (”Life is difficult for a mosquito,” the company noted.)
One tricky part of the process: sorting male mosquitoes from females. Mechanical methods exist, but MosquitoMate sorts them by hand, Nature reported.
MosquitoMate’s approval lets it sell its mosquitoes for five years in D.C., California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maine, Maryland, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont and West Virginia.
Killing all mosquitoes worldwide would probably not affect the food chain and the reduction in malaria, dengue fever and Zika would save hundreds of thousands of children’s lives. But full eradication is not likely, experts said. Yet.
“It’s a non-chemical way of dealing with mosquitoes.” David O’Brochta University of Maryland