News > The U.S.’s first open-air genetically modified mosquitoes have taken flight

The U.S.’s first open-air genetically modified mosquitoes have taken flight

The first genetically modified mosquitoes that will be allowed to fly free outdoors in the United States have started reaching the age for mating in the Florida Keys.

This short-term Florida experiment marks the first outdoor test in the United States of a strain of GM male mosquitoes as a highly targeted pest control strategy. This strain is engineered to shrink local populations of Ae. aegypti, a mosquito species that spread dengue and Zika.