Intentionally Infecting Mosquitoes With Bacteria May Get Rid Of Zika

You probably wouldn't expect that releasing tens of thousands of mosquitos into the wild would help bring down the population, but that's exactly the approach Florida is taking.

Officials from the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District are hoping to get rid of Zika with an unconventional method. The plan is to release male mosquitos infected with a bacteria in the hope the offspring of those mosquitos won't ever hatch.

Read: What Will The Next Epidemic Be? World Not Prepared For Another Disease Like Ebola Or Zika, Study Finds

The Control District released 20,000 male mosquitoes earlier this week that were infected with natural Wolbachia bacteria on Stock Island as a trial to fight Zika and other diseases in the area, a Facebook post said. The mosquitoes came from MosquitoMate, a company in Kentucky that specializes in natural, non-GMO mosquito solutions.

The idea is that the infected male mosquitoes will mate with female mosquiotes and the resulting mosquito offspring never make it to adulthood if they even hatch. Female mosquitoes are the only ones that bite, so if there are fewer mosqitoes in general, there will be fewer females that bite and transmit disease.

The use of Wolbachia-infected males is a trial for Florida. For the next three months, more insects will be released twice a week until 40,000 additional males have been added to the island. The trial is MosquitoMate's second, Stat reported.

The hope is that this method will keep the mosquito population down and lower the rate of transmission for not only Zika, but other dangerous diseases mosquitos can carry.