Mosquito control officials in Miami-Dade County are expanding a program that started last year in the Keys. Genetically-modified mosquitoes are being released in South Miami to combat the Zika virus.
This mosquito season, Annick Sternberg is perfectly happy to have the annoying bugs swarming in her South Miami neighborhood.
The Miami suburb, now recognized as one of the region’s greenest for its mayor’s effort to ban pesticides and push solar energy, is hosting a field trial for lab-bred male mosquitoes that help control disease-spreading wild populations. The $4.1 million effort, funded by federal money set aside to fight Zika, is the largest of its kind so far and could become the latest weapon in Miami-Dade County’s war on urban mosquitoes.
“This is a roll-out to see if we can make it operational,” said Bill Petrie, the county’s new mosquito control chief, on Thursday as hundreds of mosquitoes were released at Brewer Park.