Google wants to release 64M sterile mosquitoes. Why is the tech giant interested in pest control?

A giant tech company is asking the federal government for permission to release tens of millions of mosquitoes, in an effort to bring down their population.

Google has asked the EPA to release as many as 64 million sterilized male mosquitoes. The public comment period on the proposal ended last week.

The plan is that the sterilized mosquitoes would help decrease the overall number of the insects that can carry diseases like Zika, dengue and others. This would not impact the species of mosquito that carries West Nile virus.

Lila Seidman is a reporter for the Los Angeles Times focused on wildlife and the outdoors. She spoke with The Show, and started with what exactly Google is looking to do.

Full conversation

LILA SEIDMAN: So, at least part of their plan, because they have a plan called Debug, which is this idea of releasing sterile male mosquitoes, a specific type of invasive mosquito, to drive down the population of the insects and, as a result, limit the disease they spread. And these mosquitoes, called Aedes aegypti, can spread dengue, yellow fever, Zika, so things that aren't good.

And a specific part of that plan is they want to release up to 64 million of those sterile male mosquitoes in Florida and California over two years. So, it's also really important to note that male mosquitoes do not bite. So, releasing millions of mosquitoes is not going to lead to a bunch of biting insects being in your orbit.

MARK BRODIE: Right. Well, and the point, and this is something that that has been done for a while with mosquitoes and other insects, is you sterilize the males and they mate with the females. The females have eggs, but they don't hatch, and therefore you reduce the population.

Assuming that Google goes ahead and does this, are there estimates as far as how much it could bring the mosquito populations in Florida and California down?

LILA SEIDMAN: So, I have not seen an estimate for this particular project, but they did a trial in 2018 in Fresno County, and they published their results two years later in a study, and the reductions were really stark.

I can even read it to you. It said, "The number of female mosquitoes was 95.5% lower in release areas compared to non-release areas at peak mosquito season." ... So, that's a really big effect.

MARK BRODIE: Why is Google doing this?

LILA SEIDMAN: That's the question that a lot of people have been asking me. This was I had a feeling you might ask me. I've been starting to look into this, but I don't have anything I can really report yet. I reached out to Google for this story, and they did not respond to me yet.

I've been talking to other vector control officials, so the people who deal with pest management on a local level, and they've kind of been sharing with me their ideas, but I want to do more verification before I report that.

MARK BRODIE: Sure. Well, are the vector control folks, like, what do they think about having a giant tech company sort of coming into their space and and doing this?

LILA SEIDMAN: I mean, it's really interesting. I want to talk to more people, but one challenge that — and I'm based in Los Angeles and I'm mostly focused on Southern California, but these issues are probably happening in other parts of the country like Florida because Florida also has a big mosquito population.

Their issue is scaling these operations and coordinating. So, they can focus on their local area, their local district, but this is a regional problem. So, I have talked to a lot of officials who told me we do have this challenge of not being able to bring this to a wide enough area and wanting to coordinate on a broader level.

So, I haven't talked to a lot of people specifically about this, but I thought about this as a potential way to sidestep that. If a private company steps in and potentially has the money and ability to do this on a broader scale, I wondered if that could actually be good for local jurisdictions.

MARK BRODIE: I mean, it's an interesting point because, you know, mosquitoes of course famously move around, they fly. So, you know, even if ... one particular area does a good job of fogging or some other kind of ... reducing the population, that doesn't necessarily help, you know, the area a few miles down the road or the next district or jurisdiction.

Whereas as you're saying, you know, a giant company might be able to scale it up so that an entire region or more of a region can be can be affected.

LILA SEIDMAN: Yeah, exactly. Well, what's funny is these mosquitoes actually don't fly very far, but they get moved places for somehow. Their eggs might might get carried on a plant, they might hitch a ride in your car, and they've definitely been spreading in California. I mean, they are pretty far north in the state, which, you know, you think of mosquitoes being in warm regions, but they've been creeping north.

And because what you were saying is that, you know, it's not just a one-city issue, right? I mean, that is totally true. And one thing Google is saying — I don't know if this is the whole reason why they're doing this, but they have a very detailed explanation, not of the specific projects in California and Florida, but the general idea.

And they really focus on using technology to make the process better and easier so that they can release more mosquitoes. Because they're saying, "Hey, it's hard to rear the number of mosquitoes you need to do this for it to be effective." Which is like, you know, actually in the millions. And so they're like, "Hey, we can automate rearing of mosquitoes, use technology to figure out where is the best place to release them." So, that is one thing that they're saying they can bring to the table that, you know, maybe a city or a county can't.

MARK BRODIE: Are there other private companies that you know of that are doing something like this or, you know, even if it's not specifically trying to, you know, reduce mosquito populations, something else kind of in the environmental health, public health space?

LILA SEIDMAN: I was talking to a local official about a very small company that also uses this bacteria, which is called Wolbachia, and she said basically they have a different strain. And yeah, so they do sell that as a product. That's my understanding, is that there are some companies on a much small, you know, that's a small one. I don't know if there are other large companies getting involved, but I have heard of different ventures.

Because one aspect of this is the public health aspect ... Dengue is a huge problem, not just, I mean, worldwide. So, the other idea is that if you create a patent, let's say a product, that works, that might be able to be sold. So, there is that element to it.

MARK BRODIE: All right. That is Lila Seidman, a reporter with the LA Times. Lila, thanks so much, I really appreciate it.

LILA SEIDMAN: Thanks so much.