In Florida, genetically modified mosquitoes are being released. Currently, 12,000 modified eggs have been placed in various areas in Florida. The eggs will hatch when there is water on them. The project is targeting one species of mosquitoes, the Aedes aegypti, which carries many types of diseases including Zika and Dengue. In 2016, Zika was declared a worldwide emergency since many babies were born with heads that were too small. Dengue was another virus that was spreading, which has horrible symptoms. In 2021, around 750 million modified mosquitoes should be released.
Now, I know you all are wondering, what does the modified mosquito do? Well, when a female mosquito mates with a modified male one, the male passes on a gene that is designed to kill the female. This system is not perfect, and will most likely need improvements over time. By the way, this system costs a lot of money to use. The group making the modified eggs uses around $1 million a year for this project, which is one tenth of its total budget.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/
