Google aims to release 64 million “good" mosquitoes in California and Florida

An initiative spearheaded by Google wants to help eradicate the deadly mosquito population by introducing tens of millions more of the insects to two of the nation’s largest states. The organization, though, promises its "good bugs" are designed to eliminate the disease-ridden "bad bugs."

By the numbers:

Google’s Debug program filed a request with the Environmental Protection Agency for an experimental use permit that would let it release up to 64 million mosquitoes in Florida and California over a two-year span. 

Timeline:

In the first year, the organization would release up to 16 million of them in both California and Florida before returning the next year and releasing up to 16 million in each state.

How It Works

Debug’s plan to fight mosquitoes with more mosquitoes starts with using male mosquitoes that are infected with naturally occurring bacteria called Wolbachia, according to an explanation on its website. It points out that male mosquitoes cannot bite or spread disease. 

Thanks to the bacteria, the mosquitoes are unable to reproduce when mating with the female mosquitoes they meet in the wild. Over time, that fact will start to reduce the population of the ones that can spread disease.

The backstory:

The World Mosquito Program of Monash University backed the use of Wolbachia mosquitoes to combat diseases spread by the insects and announced last year that it had teamed up with Debug to explore an automated release program for a different mosquito species. Its statement did not indicate if the program was involved in this plan.

Dig deeper:

The World Mosquito Program explained that Debug created an end-to-end technology that includes robots to rear the mosquitoes, artificial intelligence to sort them by sex, and data surveillance. It added that the vehicle-based automated release platform is more efficient than manual methods.

Why you should care:

Mosquitoes are described as the world’s deadliest animals by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. On its website, the CDC noted there are over 3,700 species of mosquitoes, and they have spread to most parts of the world. 

One of the diseases spread by mosquitoes, malaria, infects more than a quarter-billion individuals every year and kills nearly 600,000 people. The agency highlighted the fact that, just three years ago, the United States experienced its first cases of locally acquired mosquito-transmitted malaria in 20 years.

Among the other diseases they are known to spread are dengue, West Nile, and Zika.