Scientists are fighting a longer mosquito season with ... more mosquitoes — SkimNews
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- San Gabriel Valley Mosquito and Vector Control District is releasing roughly 30,000 male Aedes aegypti per week — nearly half a million in all — shipped overnight from MosquitoMate in Lexington, Kentucky, to overwhelm local females with sterile mates.
- The males carry the naturally occurring Wolbachia bacterium; matings with wild females produce eggs that don't hatch, and the EPA has approved the technique, which does not involve genetic modification.
- California recorded its first locally acquired dengue cases in 2023 in Pasadena and Long Beach, and a CDC investigation identified 14 more locally acquired cases between August and November 2024, six of which required hospitalization.
- Climate Central found that nearly 95% of US cities analyzed now have more days per year with temperatures suitable for disease-spreading mosquitoes than they did in the early 1970s — an average increase of 18 days annually.
- Stephen Dobson, president of MosquitoMate, said warmer and more humid conditions now allow Aedes aegypti to survive year-round in places like the San Gabriel Valley, while the species expands northward into areas historically considered too cold.
- Success will be measured by Aedes aegypti female counts in traps — not by mosquitoes released — and prior field studies have reported 80% to 95% population reductions in release areas.
Why it matters: With California's first confirmed local dengue transmission in 2023 and Climate Central finding that 95% of US cities now face more mosquito-friendly days per year, the San Gabriel Valley's non-GMO Wolbachia release is becoming a real-world test of whether sterile-male mosquito programs can hold the line as Aedes aegypti pushes into new territory.
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