Company Plans to Drop 600,000 Bacteria-Infected Mosquitoes into DC This Summer

This summer, Washington D.C. will become home to an unusual experiment. A company is releasing six hundred thousand mosquitoes—but these aren't ordinary insects. They're infected with Wolbachia bacteria, which sterilizes them, according to io9. The strategy is environmental and elegant: when these bacteria-carrying males mate with wild females, their offspring don't survive, gradually reducing the mosquito population. Wolbachia also prevents the insects from transmitting diseases like dengue and Zika. It's a biological solution to a biological problem—no pesticides, no poisons. Just bacteria fighting for human health.

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