“For the first time, a Silver Spring, Maryland, business is releasing hundreds of thousands of infected mosquitoes this summer…

They’re releasing male mosquitoes infected with the gut bacteria Wolbachia, called ZAP males. Males don’t bite, and when a ZAP male mates with a female mosquito, she will no longer be able to produce offspring.

‘When they mate with a female, they actually cause that female to then become infertile for the rest of her life,’ Montgomery said. ‘She’s going around laying eggs that will never hatch.’

The program targets the aggressive Asian Tiger Mosquito, one of the most common species in the D.C. area, which can transmit Dengue Fever, Zika and Yellow Fever.

ZAP males are shipped from Kentucky-based MosquitoMate, which has nationwide EPA approval to use the mosquitoes as a biopesticide. The technology is relatively new in the United States but has already proven successful internationally.”

From WTOP News.