{"id":294222,"date":"2026-06-03T10:28:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T10:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/294222\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T10:28:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T10:28:11","slug":"millions-of-bioengineered-mosquitoes-may-soon-be-released-into-florida-heres-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/294222\/","title":{"rendered":"Millions of bioengineered mosquitoes may soon be released into Florida. Here\u2019s why"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 Tech giant Google is seeking government approval to release 32 million mosquitoes into Florida, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/miami\/video\/google-plans-to-release-32-million-mosquitoes-in-bid-to-fight-disease\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/miami\/video\/google-plans-to-release-32-million-mosquitoes-in-bid-to-fight-disease\/\">according to CBS News<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">The outlet reported this week that Google is pushing to do so as part of a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/debug.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/debug.com\/\">debug program<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">More specifically, the program is aimed at releasing sterile mosquitoes \u2014 dubbed \u201cgood bugs\u201d \u2014 to bring down populations of mosquitoes that actually spread diseases like Zika, yellow fever and dengue.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Per officials with the program, this method can prevent the spread of such diseases without relying on unsustainable pesticides or trying to clear all of the standing water in an area, which is simply unfeasible.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cOur good bugs are male mosquitoes that have a naturally-occurring bacteria called Wolbachia, which makes them unable to have offspring with wild female mosquitoes,&#8221; the program\u2019s website reads. \u201cMale mosquitoes can\u2019t bite or spread disease, so good bugs will stop bad ones from reproducing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.govinfo.gov\/content\/pkg\/FR-2026-05-06\/pdf\/2026-08808.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.govinfo.gov\/content\/pkg\/FR-2026-05-06\/pdf\/2026-08808.pdf\">Federal Register<\/a> last month shows that if approved for a permit, Google plans to release the 32 million mosquitoes into Florida over the course of two years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">The EPA is seeking comment until June 5 before making the decision on whether to issue the permit.<\/p>\n<p>Breaking News Alerts<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 kiwhtN\">Get breaking news alerts delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 Tech giant Google is seeking government approval to release 32 million mosquitoes into Florida, according&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293856,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1684,558,1563,28,30,29,5870,571,2546],"class_list":["post-294222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-animals","tag-business","tag-environment","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-google","tag-health","tag-strange-florida"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}