Google Seeks Federal Approval to Release Millions of Mosquitoes in California, Florida

Malaria—primarily spread by mosquitoes—killed at least 597,000 people throughout 83 countries in 2023, according to the CDC.

A laboratory technician holds a mosquito at the World Mosquito Program factory in Medellín, Colombia, on June 4, 2024. Scientists have long released biologically modified mosquitoes to curb transmission of diseases such as chikungunya. Jaime Saldarriaga/AFP via Getty Images

Google is seeking federal approval for a new program called “Debug” that would release up to 32 million mosquitoes in California and Florida to combat disease-carrying mosquitoes already found in the wild.

Pitched as a program to “stop bad mosquitoes by raising and releasing good ones,” Google’s Debug brings together a group of scientists and engineers to create technology to breed and release sterile mosquitoes to try to eliminate the ones that transmit diseases to animals and humans.