Genetically modified mosquitoes have landed in the Keys. Here’s what you need to know

More than 20 million genetically modified mosquitoes are coming to the Florida Keys this year, in a landmark project by British biotech company Oxitec and Monroe County’s Mosquito Control District. This mosquito control method hasn’t been used in the U.S. before. It’s a pilot program and the first trial began over the past week. The project is aimed at reducing the population of the invasive Aedes aegypti, which carries diseases like Zika. This is the first time in the country that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has issued the “experimental use permit” for this method.

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