Source: Radio New Zealand (world)
Photo: iNaturalist: Alfonso Auerbach, CC BY-NC 4.0
Most tech companies will spend their time and energy debugging their code – Google however is taking a much more literal approach.
The massive tech giant has asked permission from the US government to release up to 32 million sterilised mosquitos in California and Florida, to lower the spread of illness-inducing bugs.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is reviewing Google’s request to release up to 16 million mosquitoes annually over the span of two years, using the Sterile Insect Technique.
Kiwi entomologist Rachael Horner told Nights Google was wanting to release mosquitoes it had mass reared in the lab into the environment where they would mate with mild mosquitoes and produce no offspring.
The mosquitoes they rear will have a bacteria called wolbachia that would make them sterile, “basically reducing the population over time”.
Despite having a soft spot for insects given her career, Horner said she could understand why people in an urban environment would want to keep their population at lower levels.
Horner said the Sterile Insect Technique is used often for pest management.
Male mosquitoes would be used by Google because they don’t bite – only females do.
Horner said a mass amount of male mosquitoes could be released into the environment without the concern of passing on viruses such as malaria, dengue or zika which females can pass on through biting someone.
Rearing enough mosquitoes to have an impact was “quite a challenge”, Horner said.
Transporting them would be another challenge – given how delicate they are.
Asked by Nights if Google’s involvement was a bit random, Horner said it was an “interesting one, for sure”.
But she said investment was always needed in science – as well as research and development to solve the big issues.
Big investment was needed to get SIT up and going.
“Go for it, Google,” she said.
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