Mosquitoes Vs Mosquitoes – EPA Give The ‘Go-Ahead’

Some big news in the fight against mosquitoes and the diseases they spread! The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have given the go ahead to use ‘lab-grown’ mosquitoes armed with a bacteria to help get rid of other mosquitoes! Here’s an interesting article that provides more information on this huge development when it comes to mosquito control.

EPA approves bacteria-infected insects to kill mosquitoes

On Nov. 3, the Environmental Protection Agency approved a new approach from the biotech company MosquitoMate. The goal is to destroy populations of wild mosquitoes that could be carrying nasty viruses, according to a report from Nature magazine. Instead of relying on genetic engineering, MosquitoMate infects lab-grown mosquitoes with the common bacterium Wolbachia pipientis, which affects mosquitoes but not animals or humans.

Creating an army of mosquitoes to be released into the environment and go into combat with the female of the species! It does almost sound like science fiction, but one that’s science fact.

Could this be the answer to fighting deadly diseases such as Malaria or debilitating viruses like Zika or West Nile? It’s early days, but if the EPA have approved it, there must be some hope of success.

EPA OKs use of mosquitoes to kill mosquitoes

A biotech startup has just gotten approval from the FDA to unleash a new weapon against potentially dangerous mosquitoes. The weapon? Mosquitoes. As Gizmodo explains, a company out of Kentucky called MosquitoMate will sell male mosquitoes infected with a bacterium to businesses and homeowners in 20 states still to be named, along with DC. The idea is that the males will mate with female Asian tiger mosquitoes in the wild, resulting in eggs that won’t hatch. The Asian tiger (Aedes albopictus) can spread diseases such as Zika, yellow, fever, and dengue, and the company plans to roll out the strategy next summer in Lexington, Ky., before expanding elsewhere.

We’ll keep you updated with more news as we find it on this subject. Maybe in this instance the female of the species may no longer be more deadly that the male!