CLOVIS, CALIF. -- For the first time, mosquito control specialists and scientists are testing mosquitoes infected with Wolbachia bacteria to reduce populations that carry Zika virus, dengue and chikungunya diseases.
The Consolidated Mosquito Abatement District, an independent special district that addresses mosquito control in 1,058 square miles of California’s Central Valley, is testing use of sterile male mosquitoes to reduce the population of the Zika-carrying Adeses aegypti.
The District is releasing 40,000 sterile mosquitoes each week in the same Clovis neighborhood. Twice each week 20 tubes full of sterile males are shipped from MosquitoMate in Kentucky where the district releases them in the same 20 spots.
The males are infected with a bacteria, Wolbachia pipientis. They are testing the theory that when the sterile males mate with and infect local female Adeses aegypti, the will lay sterile eggs and begin reduce their population.
University of California entomologist Anthony Cornel, Ph.D., who is working with the District on the test, said last month that there is evidence that the test is working, according to Science Daily. The team is monitoring traps in the treatment zone and in a control area, where no sterile mosquitoes are released.
“Right now, the number of eggs we are getting is very much reduced in the treated site,” Cornel said.
Steve Mulligan, district manager, called the preliminary results promising. The samples are showing a decrease in the hatch rate, which means the bacteria was passed to local female mosquitoes and prevented their eggs from hatching.
More results will be available when the test completes.
