Mayor Stoddard’s Mosquito-Control Strategy for Miami-Dade County
Although mosquitoes are a year-round nuisance in subtropical Miami, millions of bacterially-infected mosquitoes flying through a suburban area are being hailed as a breakthrough that could help eradicate more of the pests that spread illnesses like Zika.
Mosquitoes infected with the Wolbachia bacteria found in nature are being released by the Mosquito Control and Habitat Management Division of Miami-Dade County to breed with wild female mosquitoes.
Although the bacteria are not dangerous to people, they will prevent any progeny born from the union of lab-bred mosquitoes and wild female mosquitoes from developing into adult mosquitoes. This reduces the number of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which thrive in suburban and urban areas and cause diseases including Zika, dengue, and chikungunya.
About 10 miles southwest of Miami’s trendy Wynwood area, where health officials confirmed the first local Zika infections spread by mosquitoes on the U.S. mainland in July 2016, Miami-Dade County is evaluating MosquitoMate’s insects as a viable mosquito-control strategy. Florida International University professor and former South Florida mayor Philip Stoddard explained he volunteered his city for the trial because he didn’t want outdoor cafés there to become the epicenter of a mosquito-borne disease outbreak.
According to former Mayor Stoddard, more than 500 million mosquitoes produced by the Kentucky-based company MosquitoMate will be released during a six-month field test permitted by the United States Environmental Protection Agency in a canal-divided suburban neighborhood near the University of Miami.