Google raising an army of 32 million mosquitoes to fight disease

Google’s Debug project is raising 32 million male mosquitoes for release in the United States with the aim of reducing populations of disease-carrying insects.

The released insects are male, which do not bite, and have been infected with the naturally occurring bacterium wolbachia. When those males mate with wild females, the females’ eggs fail to hatch; Debug plans two waves of 16 million releases in California and Florida and says the technique uses no chemicals, no toxins and does not involve genetic modification.

Debug builds on decades of research and the sterile insect technique, and uses AI to sort males from females and to manage where and when males are released.

A trial in Singapore began with six million males released per week and later rose to ten million; that effort coincided with a reported 70% reduction in dengue incidents after six to 12 months of releases. The project says this approach will lead to fewer disease-carrying mosquitoes over time.

United States, California, Florida, Singapore

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