Inside a factory in southern France, millions of tiger mosquitoes are being bred, not to have them spread, but to stop them from reproducing \u2014 though scaling up such efforts poses a mighty challenge.<\/p>\n
At the Terratis facility in Montpellier, male insects grow inside large glass enclosures. In batches of 400,000, they are exposed to X-rays, making them infertile.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter sterilisation, we release them into urban areas,\u201d explained Clelia Oliva, co\u2011founder of Terratis. \u201cThey look for females and mate, but when the females lay eggs, those eggs are empty.\u201d<\/p>\n
The aim is to flood an area with sterile male mosquitoes until the invasive population gradually collapses.<\/p>\n
How to overcome the growing spread, propelled significantly by climate change, of the striped creature has taxed minds across much of Europe in recent years. Not only do they sting people over the summer months, but they also carry serious diseases.<\/p>\n
First developed 50 years ago for agriculture, the sterile insect technique is now being adapted to fight mosquitoes, as disease-carrying species continue to multiply.<\/p>\n
The tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus), which can transmit diseases such as dengue, the Zika virus and chikungunya, is now present across most of France.<\/p>\n
But enhancing efforts to ramp down their numbers remains difficult. Of around 50\u00a0industrial projects being developed worldwide, Terratis \u2013 founded in 2024 \u2014 is seen as one of the most promising.<\/p>\n
The startup produces 1.5 million sterile mosquitoes per week and aims to reach 40 million within two years. \u201cThis year, we\u2019ve seen a surge in orders,\u201d said Oliva, noting a strong interest from cities struggling to control mosquito populations.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Cutting costs \u2013<\/p>\n
\u201cIn principle, the sterile mosquito technique works,\u201d said Frederic Simard, head of the Institute of Research for Development (IRD) in Montpellier, which helped launch Terratis.<\/p>\n
But he said major challenges included increasing production, reducing costs, and adapting the method to different regions so that it can be competitive and sustainable.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I had to compare it, I\u2019d say we\u2019re at the iPhone 1.0 stage,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
In parts of South America and Asia, another method is gaining ground. Mosquitoes are infected with a bacterium called Wolbachia, which prevents them from transmitting certain viruses.<\/p>\n
In Brazil, a single facility produces as many as 100 million eggs per week using this approach.<\/p>\n
But Simard told AFP that no single solution is enough.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Wolbachia technique, sterilisation, traps, insecticides \u2014 all of this needs to be combined,\u201d he stressed, calling Wolbachia an \u201cemergency response\u201d to immediate health risks and sterilisation part of a longer-term strategy.<\/p>\n
Originally from southeast Asia, the tiger mosquito has now spread across the globe, \u201caffecting rich and poor countries alike,\u201d he noted, driving governments and investors to search for scalable solutions.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Grey area \u2013<\/p>\n
On the ground, experiments are already under way with climate change a key factor giving the insects\u2019 spread momentum.<\/p>\n
In Montpellier\u2019s Malbosc district, a trial that began in August 2025 is continuing this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwice a week, we release 100,000 mosquitoes across 31 locations,\u201d said Terratis employee Florian Vernichon, stepping back from the cloud of insects he has just set free.<\/p>\n
But this comes at a cost.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t have the means to finance releases on the scale of an entire city, and we believe this should be handled by the state and regional health agencies,\u201d said Stephane Jouault, deputy mayor in charge of nature and biodiversity.<\/p>\n
He told AFP the current experiment is estimated to cost around 70,000 euros ($81,000).<\/p>\n
In France, the approach also faces a regulatory hurdle. Sterile mosquitoes fall into a grey area \u2014 they are neither biocides, designed to control harmful organisms, nor genetically modified organisms, which could discourage private investment, Simard explained.<\/p>\n
Still, early results are encouraging. In Brive-la-Gaillarde, where Terratis released 11 million sterile mosquitoes in May 2025, \u201chalf of the eggs ready to hatch in spring were sterile, and 90 percent should be by the end of summer 2026\u201d, said Oliva.<\/p>\n
The goal, she added, is not to eradicate the species entirely, but to significantly and sustainably reduce their numbers, as a need for urgent solutions grows.<\/p>\n
In 2025, a record year according to public health authorities in France, 809 locally transmitted cases of chikungunya and 30 of dengue were recorded.<\/p>\n
Looking ahead, researchers imagine a future where production could reach several billion sterile mosquitoes if the industry scales up.<\/p>\n
By Ysis PERCQ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Inside a factory in southern France, millions of tiger mosquitoes are being bred, not to have them spread,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495236,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[2084,242,163,85,399,46,100524,22457],"class_list":["post-495235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-climate","tag-environment","tag-health","tag-il","tag-international","tag-israel","tag-mna","tag-mosquitoes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}