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Swatting out bugs: Genetically modified mosquitoes released in South Florida

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved a plan that is trying to lessen the amount of disease-carrying mosquitoes, and they’re using science to do it. But not all people agree with the move.

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British biotech company Oxitec has been tapped to get rid of the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes that swarm in South Florida, the Miami Herald reported.

They are placing genetically modified mosquitoes in six locations in the Lower and Middle Keys.

About 144,000 male mosquitoes will be released, NBC News reported.

Once hatched, they hope the genetically modified male insects will mate with females, and when a female offspring is produced, a genetic code that’s being called a “death mechanism” will cause them to not be viable.

Female mosquitoes are the ones that bite, and therefore they are the ones that transmit diseases that are transmitted to humans.

Those diseases include Zika, dengue fever and chikungunya.

The EPA, along with state officials and a mosquito control board in the Florida Keys, are working together to either reduce or wipe out the mosquito population.

The plan was approved after years of public input , NBC News reported.

Oxitec said the plan has the support of the public, but some locals are against introducing genetically modified bugs into the wild, the Herald reported.

Mara Daly has worked against the plan for nearly a decade and believes it will harm people and the environment.

“The locals have had some serious questions over the years — scientifically, easily-based questions that they have refused to answer for 10 years,” Daly told the Herald. “They say lots of things but there is no science and no proof and they don’t allow simple testing.”

Daly said she is concerned about allergic reactions and claims that a lot of people are asking about the projects.

Oxitec’s head of public affairs, Meredith Fensom, said the mosquitoes will not cause allergic reactions, the Herald reported.

As mosquitoes have become resistant to previous methods, so a new way to control the population is needed.

“As we are seeing development of resistance to some of our current control methods, we are in need of new tools to combat this mosquito,” Andrea Leal, executive director of the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District said, according to NBC News.

The state has tried other options in the past, including releasing male mosquitoes that carried a specific bacteria that killed offspring, NBC News reported.