'Must be STOPPED': Why Google's plans to release 64 million mosquitoes in America has citizens worried

Dengue, chikungunya, and zika are diseases caused by one type of insect: mosquitoes. According to The Debug Project, backed by Google's parent company Alphabet, mosquitoes kill more people than every other animal combined. "One species, Aedes aegypti, carries diseases such as dengue, Zika, yellow fever, and chikungunya which make hundreds of millions of people sick every year. And these diseases are spreading faster than ever,” says the project.

While one would believe that a preventative environment or healthy life would be the ideal solution, according to the project, releasing 64 million mosquitoes in America is the best way forward.

Meet Wolbachia

Alphabet Inc's life sciences wing, Verily, has been breeding "good" mosquitoes for the past 10 years under its Debug programme. Now, it is seeking permission to release these millions of good bugs in California and Florida.

Debug's engineers and scientists have been developing technology to raise and release these male mosquitoes infected with a naturally occurring bacterium called Wolbachia. The bacteria make them unable to produce offspring, thus, any eggs with the "bad" bugs won't hatch, bringing down the population of deadly bugs over time. Moreover, since male mosquitoes don't bite, the prevention is enhanced further.

So far, Debug has been working with the Aedes aegypti species of mosquitoes, associated with dengue, yellow fever and chikungunya. But the current proposal lists another species, Culex quinquefasciatus, that carries the West Nile virus and St. Louis encephalitis.

Googling plans

Google has now filed a request with the US Environmental Protection Agency to take the project forward. A notice from the Federal Register shows that the EPA has invited public comments on the matter until June 5, as "the permit may be of regional and national significance."

The plan is spread across two years, 16 million mosquitoes will be released in both California and Florida in year 1 and another 16 million will be released in the same locations in year 2.

Inside the project

The project is based on the Sterile Insect Technique. A sound theory that has been used to control the population of fruit flies, screw worms and codling moths. However, the scale at which this can be executed is a problem.

“Making a lot of good bugs is really, really hard,” according to Debug’s introductory video on the project. To fix this issue, it's created bug-sorting algorithms, bug-tracking sensors and bug-raising robots.

The website breaks down the process into six steps. The first is to develop modified male mosquitoes, the next is to rear them. This is where the bug-raising robots come into play. Then comes sorting the good bugs into male and female, for which a new technology is being developed. In step four, modified males are released into the wild hoping that they mate with the females.

In the final steps, any eggs produced from the mating of a "good" bug and a "bad" bug won't hatch, meaning the next generation will be smaller in number. The ultimate goal of the project is to kill off disease-causing mosquitoes so “more people can go to work, school and go outside without worrying about getting sick.”

Outrage goes viral

The news of the project has caused much ruckus among the general public and environmental activists.

“Have we not learned our lesson with Kudzu, Sparrows, Black Birds (and) Asian Carp? Should I go on? Don’t mess with the balance of nature,” Tennessee Republican Rep Tim Burchett wrote on X.

“Google is about to conduct one of the LARGEST open-air biological experiments in U.S. HISTORY. 64 MILLION bacteria-infected mosquitoes are set to be released into Florida and California — potentially causing irreversible ecosystem disruptions. This must be STOPPED,” added Epidemiologist Nicolas Hulscher.

“I want everyone to stop and ask what interest Google has in releasing mosquitoes. They’re a tech company. Not an environmental group. Not a non-profit. Not a government. A tech company,” the person wrote on X.

Interestingly, this is not the first time mosquitoes have been released in an attempt to stop the spread of disease. Multiple populations of lab-grown mosquitoes have been released in states like Florida, California and Texas since 2021 to combat disease.

As of now, EPA is reviewing the proposal. The agency issued a press release last week, indicating that no approvals have been given yet, along with a warning that any unauthorised release "would constitute a violation of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and would be subject to enforcement action."