Tech company Google has sought permission from the US government to release up to 64 million male mosquitoes in California and Florida combined. The company says that this will reduce the population of mosquitoes that spread disease. The risk of diseases like dengue, West Nile virus, Zika, chikungunya and malaria will reduce. According to a notice released in the Federal Register, the official gazette of the US government, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is reviewing Google’s demand. If permission is granted, Google will release 32 million mosquitoes in California and 32 million in Florida over a period of 2 years. This is an ‘insect sterilization technique’ that has been used on various insects for decades. According to Eric Karagata, assistant professor at the University of Florida, Wolbachia bacteria have been used for sterilization for about 15 years. Mosquito numbers will decline with each generation One of the main methods Google is testing is to infect male mosquitoes with a naturally occurring bacteria called Wolbachia, which prevents them from reproducing with wild female mosquitoes. Google has stated in a blog post that in this way the number of mosquitoes decreases with each generation. Other methods of eliminating mosquitoes are not very successful. According to Google, other methods of eliminating mosquitoes have not proven to be very effective. Spraying pesticides becomes toxic and less effective over time. It is difficult to find and clean all the water sources where mosquitoes breed. In the new technology, mosquitoes will be released using AI-powered computer vision. This strategy is the most special among the existing eco-friendly methods. According to Karthikeyan Chandrasegaran, assistant professor at the University of California, Riverside, Wolbachia-based strategies do not release new toxic substances into the environment. Wolbachia is already found naturally in many insect species. This is currently one of the most environmentally friendly methods of mosquito control.
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