Up to four California counties could see the swarm in coming years, pending approval.
as municipalities across the state grapple with increasing bouts of an invasive mosquito species.
The mosquitoes, developed by the British biotech firm Oxitec, are known as OX5034 — a modified male version of Aedes aegypti, the species that first emerged in Los Angeles County about a decade ago before spreading to at least 22 different counties across the state.
Officials in Visalia unanimously approved a trial run of the Oxitec program in October 2021, just months after thereported on the considerable rise of the Aedes aegypti in the area. The biotech company also plans to open offices in the Central California city. "With mosquito and vector-borne diseases a growing concern in California, we see Oxitec’s technology as an important additional option to control the invasive Aedes aegypti mosquito,” Mustapha Debboun, of the Delta Mosquito and Vector Control District, said in a statement.
The hope, Debboun told the Bay Area News Group, is that this should be more targeted and less harmful to butterflies and other beneficial and non-invasive bugs than pesticides.