Their goal is to control the population of an invasive mosquito species by releasing sterile male mosquitos. But don't worry, they don’t bite.
They plan to use lab-bred mosquitoes infected with a naturally-occurring bacteria that would make them unable to breed. So, when a wild female mosquito mates with a sterile male, her eggs won't hatch. If the plan works, the mosquito population should shrink. And ideally so should mosquito-borne diseases.
Jeremy Shannon, the assistant manager at the Santa Clara Mosquito and Vector Control District, says, "One of our primary concerns here, at least in Santa Clara County and really throughout the state, since its introduction, has been West Nile virus."
Shannon says this technology called “sterile insect technique” has been in use since 2017. "There are districts even within the Bay Area that are going to be utilizing this approach this season."
But not at the same scale as the Debug Project. Google is trying to out-compete the entire state's wild male mosquito population. Shannon says, "The scale is not concerning, I would say. It's part of the approach then, that you need a high number of males to accomplish that goal."
Shannon says the public doesn't need to worry. "This particular method doesn't require the use of chemical pesticides, right? So it's an exciting technology and it may very well be the future of vector control as it's more widely adopted."
The EPA is reviewing Debug’s request to release up to 16 million mosquitoes annually, over a period of two years. The agency is accepting comments from the public about the proposal until June 5.
