Mosquito Control releases over 100K sterile male mosquitos to combat Aedes aegypti population
Mosquito Control releases over 100K sterile male mosquitos to combat Aedes aegypti population
Tags: Aedes, Mosquitoes, North America, Sterile insect technique (SIT)NBC2 News, 2024.
The Lee County Mosquito Control District just released over 100,000 mosquitos near downtown Fort Myers. This was the first big release for the Sterile Insect Program in Fort Myers. Every single week moving forward, the Lee County Mosquito Control District will release hundreds of thousands of sterile male Aedes aegypti mosquitos in the downtown Fort Myers, South, and Edison Park area.
The goal of the program is to reduce the population of Aedes aegypti mosquitos. The Mosquito Control District is releasing male mosquitos because males don’t bite humans, only female mosquitos bite. Aedes aegypti mosquitoes can cause illnesses in humans such as Zika, dengue fever, chikungunya and yellow fever. Rachel Morreale is the biologist who initiated, researched and implemented the Sterile Insect program for Lee County Mosquito Control District.
