Google to let the mosquitoes out in US:Move a part of strategy to reduce diseases like dengue, chikungunya malaria

Tech company Google has sought permission from the US government to release up to 64 million (6.4 crore) male mosquitoes in California and Florida combined. The company says this will reduce the population of disease-spreading mosquitoes. The risk of diseases like dengue, West Nile virus, Zika, chikungunya and malaria will decrease. According to a notice issued in the Federal Register, the US government’s official gazette, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is reviewing Google’s request. If permission is granted, Google will release 32 million mosquitoes in California and 32 million in Florida over a 2-year period. This is the ‘insect sterilization technique’ that has been used on different insects for decades. According to Eric Caragata, Assistant Professor at the University of Florida, Wolbachia bacteria has been used for sterilization for about 15 years. The number of mosquitoes will decrease with each generation One of the main methods Google is testing is infecting male mosquitoes with a naturally occurring bacteria called Wolbachia, which prevents them from producing offspring with wild female mosquitoes. Google has explained in a blog post that this way the mosquito population decreases with each generation. Other methods of eliminating mosquitoes are not very successful According to Google, other methods of destroying mosquitoes have not proven very effective. Spraying insecticides is toxic and becomes less effective over time. Finding and cleaning all water sources where mosquitoes breed is difficult. The new technology will release mosquitoes using AI-powered computer vision. This strategy is the most special among existing environment-friendly methods According to Karthikeyan Chandrasegaran, Assistant Professor at the University of California, Riverside, Wolbachia-based strategies do not release new toxic substances into the environment. Wolbachia is already naturally found in many insect species. This is currently one of the most environmentally friendly methods of mosquito control.