It’s news that’s as surprising as it is delightful. Since May, in Mions near Lyon, 200,000 mosquitoes are being released into the wild each week, with a total of 15 million planned to be released by 2028. But these little critters have a unique twist: they're males — which means they don’t bite — and they are sterile. The goal? To have them mate with females, leading to empty eggs and no new mosquitoes. This measure is being taken to help fight against tiger mosquitoes, which carry many diseases.
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World's Deadliest Animal
No matter how tiny, the mosquito is currently the deadliest animal in the world, causing 750,000 deaths each year. Why is that? It spreads serious diseases and viruses from one person to another, like Zika, chikungunya, and malaria. To tackle this public health emergency, a lab in southern France has decided to breed sterilized mosquitoes. “There’s a sense of urgency since in 2025, historically, there were 800 cases of local chikungunya in France and 30 cases of local dengue. The risk of dengue or chikungunya by 2030 is around 6 to 7 on a scale from 0 to 9. So, we are all affected,” explains Dr. Jean Lang to France info.
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A project developed in the United States as well
The initiative continues across the Atlantic. With its Debug project, Google plans to release 30 million sterile mosquitoes in California and Florida, pending government approval.
The idea is, in the long run, like in France, to reduce the number of mosquitoes. The effects of such a project have already been demonstrated in Singapore, where they observed a decrease of between 80 and 90% in the number of mosquitoes and a reduction of 70% in the risk of dengue. Will Paris be affected by this amazing release of mosquitoes? The future will tell us. What is certain, however, is that the initiative in Mions will have an impact on all of France.