16-05-2025
French start-up unveils plan to sterilise mosquitoes
The black-and-white striped tiger mosquito, which can deliver an irritating bite as well as potentially deadly tropical diseases including dengue fever, zika and chikungunya, was first spotted in France in 2004.
Twenty years later, it has been detected in
78 of France's 96 mainland départements
.
Originally found in tropical forests in southeast Asia, the tiger mosquito thrives in urban environments and it is extremely difficult to get rid of once it has begun inhabiting a place.
Until, it seems, now.
Montpellier-based start-up Terratis is the first to use a well-known method to limit the proliferation of the insect.
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The Sterile Insect Technique (SIT), is considered to be one of the most environmentally-friendly insect pest control methods developed. Irradiation with gamma rays and X-rays sterilises mass-reared insects so that, while they remain sexually competitive, they cannot produce offspring.
The method has been around for more than 60 years, according to the
International Atomic Energy Agency
, but this is the first time it has been tested on mosquitoes in France.
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Large numbers of sterilised male tiger mosquitoes will be released in specific areas, where they will mate with females – which will lay empty eggs, thereby limiting their proliferation.
According to a study by France's Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, which has studied the technique for more than a decade, a real-world test in the Duparc area of Sainte-Marie, on Réunion, reduced the birth rate of tiger mosquitoes by an average of 50 percent, rising to 60 percent in the first year.
Projections suggest that second-year birth rates would be cut by as much as 90 percent.
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'While researchers agree SIT will not completely eliminate the mosquito population, it is a truly convincing means of control,' Louis Clément Gouagna, coordinator of the SIT program in Réunion, told BFM TV.
Terratis now hopes to have a factory up and running by 2028 so it can expand into agriculture, particularly to fight agricultural pests. The startup announced fundraising of €1.5 million last March and is already receiving requests from local authorities and homeowners' associations.
