The mosquitoes are coming—and then, hopefully, they’re going. [Soon], British biotech company Oxitec plans to kick off a months-long experiment in which it will release release billions of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in California and Florida. But these aren’t just any mosquitoes—they’re genetically engineered so that they don’t bite and will, if all goes according to plan, eventually reduce the population of mosquitoes in these areas.
This isn’t the first test of genetically modified mosquitoes in the real world, but it will be the largest to date. By the end, proponents hope that the experiment will have demonstrated that the technique can work to eliminate disease-carrying mosquitoes in places plagued by malaria, dengue, and Zika, all without pesticides that could harm helpful native species. Future applications of similar technology could go even farther to preserve human life and protect the environment.
But to do so, researchers won’t just have to prove the science works—they’ll have to get regulators and the public on board, too.
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The American public seems so far solidly in the opposed camp. A 2016 study based on a mailed survey found that “a majority of survey respondents did not support use of GM mosquitoes as a mosquito control method,” citing concerns around “human and animal health impacts from the GM mosquitoes, and environmental concerns about potential negative effects on the ecosystem.”
A 2017 study found that 80% of the comments submitted to the US Food and Drug Administration about a trial in Florida were negative.
