US firm to release 600,000 mosquitoes to curb pests

A US mosquito-control firm plans to release 600,000 non-biting male tiger mosquitoes across the Washington region by the end of summer, using Wolbachia bacteria to stop eggs from hatching when the males mate with uninfected females.

Bee Safe Mosquito Control founder Todd Montgomery is selling the backyard treatment as “ZAP Males.” The company says the approach targets tiger mosquitoes, or Aedes albopictus, which can carry pathogens including dengue.

The initiative is aimed at residential customers. Twenty-five customers have signed up, each receiving 1,500 mosquitoes a week for 16 weeks.

Montgomery, a former electrical engineer who founded the company in 2023, said he wanted to reduce pesticide spraying around suburban yards. He said rising temperatures had lengthened the warm, humid season in which mosquitoes thrive.

The approach uses Wolbachia, a bacteria that occurs naturally in mosquitoes. When a male mosquito carrying the bacteria mates with a female that does not carry it, or carries a different strain, sterilization occurs.

Results may depend on local conditions. Marcelo Jacobs-Lorena, a Johns Hopkins University professor emeritus who studies the field, said mosquitoes can move with the wind and that efficacy depends on geography and the scale of the intervention.

Singapore runs a large public-sector Wolbachia programme that began in 2016 and releases more than 10 million mosquitoes each week. A New England Journal of Medicine study found that programme significantly cut the Aedes aegypti population and reduced dengue risk by more than 70 percent.

In May, Google applied for a permit to release 32 million mosquitoes for a similar project in Florida and California. Montgomery said his service is fully booked for the year and is taking reservations for 2027.