NPR’s Scott Simons asks College of Kentucky entomologist Stephen Dobson about mosquito management utilizing modified mosquitoes launched into the wild.
Transcript
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
(Imitating mosquitoes). Half 1,000,000 mosquitoes are going to be let out within the Washington, D.C., space this summer time, however these are the sort of mosquitoes you simply would possibly need buzzing round. They’re male mosquitoes contaminated with a micro organism that stops eggs from hatching. Massive releases of those mosquitoes in elements of Singapore have introduced populations down by 90%. Stephen Dobson is an entomologist on the College of Kentucky and the CEO of MosquitoMate, a lab that creates them. And he joins us now from that lab in Lexington, Kentucky. Thanks a lot for being with us.
STEPHEN DOBSON: Thanks. Nice to be right here.
SIMON: So what do you do? You simply inform these mosquitoes, go at one another?
DOBSON: Hundreds of thousands of years has taught them precisely what to do.
SIMON: And what occurs?
DOBSON: The males fly round. They do not drink blood. It is simply the females that drink blood. They use the protein from blood to make eggs. Males do not make eggs. They do some pollination, together with discovering females. They mate with them, after which these females change into sterile.
SIMON: How did you develop these mosquitoes?
DOBSON: Effectively, they have been developed again round 2005. This was on the College of Kentucky, in my laboratory. And principally, this can be a naturally occurring bacterium named Wolbachia. We moved it from one mosquito through the use of small needles. We pulled the egg yolk out of 1 mosquito egg and injected it into one other.
SIMON: Forgive me – I’ve to cease you there since you say that as if it is essentially the most pure factor on this planet. Like, how massive are the needles, or how small are they?
DOBSON: Microscopic. It could be arduous sufficient to do it with a hen egg, however yeah, think about doing this with an egg that you need to have below 40x magnification.
SIMON: My reminiscence of Kentucky is that it is a mosquito haven. I simply surprise in the event that they ever buzz near you and any individual says, avoid that man.
DOBSON: Sure. We do have these mosquitoes. They’re quite common. They’re those that sort of buzz round your ankles. They’re black-and-white striped. In Kentucky and D.C., the place you are positioned, these are invasive species. The tiger mosquito is the one which’s the most important drawback. It was not in the USA previous to 1985. And in order that’s a query that we generally get – by eradicating these mosquitoes, are we one way or the other negatively affecting the ecosystem? And the reply is we’re truly taking it again to a extra pure state previous to the introduction of those mosquitoes.
SIMON: Who buys these mosquitoes?
DOBSON: We’re presently offering mosquitoes to personal pest management operators. So these are individuals who would come to your yard within the D.C. space. After which we’re additionally offering mosquitoes to abatement districts. These are municipal districts in Florida and California the place tax {dollars} are paying for mosquito management.
SIMON: And what are the advantages of this method?
DOBSON: One good factor is that this can be a species-specific method. So as an alternative of a broad-spectrum chemical that may have an effect on bees or butterflies or useful bugs, these males – they’re solely on the lookout for females of the identical species. One other benefit is there is no recognized resistance. At the moment, we have been pressured to reuse the identical chemical substances for many years. On account of that, many of those mosquito populations have developed resistance towards these chemical substances.
SIMON: How lengthy does it take to get outcomes?
DOBSON: We’re principally impacting the following technology. You wouldn’t see a discount in your yard for a number of weeks. When these eggs fail to hatch, your inhabitants goes to go down.
SIMON: Professor Stephen Dobson, who’s an entomologist on the College of Kentucky and CEO of MosquitoMate. Thanks very a lot for being with us.
DOBSON: Thanks. It was a pleasure.
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