Trial aims to take bite out of mosquitoes

Aedes aegypti mosquitoes will be released in March and April on an island in Guangdong province in a trial to sterilize mosquitoes that transmit diseases like dengue fever.

When a male mosquito designed to carry the Wolbachia bacteria mates with a female, sterile eggs are produced that do not hatch, according to Xi Zhiyong, director of the Sun Yat-sen University-Michigan State University Joint Center of Vector Control for Tropical Diseases.

Wolbachia can be found in 60 percent of insects, including butterflies, dragonflies and fruit flies, but it has the special effect of sterility on the Aedes aegypti mosquito, previous studies have found.