“Tens Of TRILLIONS Of Mosquitos” - Google UNLEASHES Lab-Bred Bugs To ‘Combat Disease’

**SPEAKER_1** (0:01)
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**SPEAKER_2** (0:30)
Apparently Google is planning on releasing mosquitoes. Great.
What do you mean mosquitoes? They want to release millions of mosquitoes into California to help stop diseases.
What's the disease? What do you want to do? No, they want to release mosquitoes. Guys, this is not a spoof of a story. This is a real story that we're talking about.

**SPEAKER_5** (0:50)
Correct. And they want to do it here in the state of Florida as well.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:52)
Yeah. Well, that's where it's going to be a problem when you're doing something like that. Google, planning to release mosquitoes, a tech giant is seeking federal approval to release. You ready for this, folks? Thirty-two million specially treated mosquitoes in California and Florida over the next two years as part of an effort to reduce the spread of mosquito borne disease, including West Nile virus, St. Louis encephalitis, and then a bunch of other viruses that I'm not going to read.
The proposal is currently under review by the US. Environmental Protection Agency, which is accepting public comments through June 5th before deciding whether to issue an experimental permit. Rob, can we see what these mosquitoes look like that they're talking about? On Friday, a positive sample of West Nile virus was confirmed in Riverside County. The project is part of Google's little-known debug initiative launched more than a decade ago to develop new technologies aimed at reducing populations of disease-carrying mosquitoes rather than releasing biting insects. The company plans to release male mosquitoes infected with Wolbachia, a naturally occurring bacteria. Is that what the mosquitoes look like?

**SPEAKER_3** (2:02)
She has eyebrows.

**SPEAKER_2** (2:03)
Rob, is that it?

**SPEAKER_5** (2:04)
Yes, that's what they're said.

**SPEAKER_4** (2:05)
This is from the CDC.

**SPEAKER_2** (2:06)
How long does it take to make each of these mosquitoes? Do we know?
How long does it take to make these mosquitoes? What is the cost of each mosquito? So one of them is a self-limiting gene that prevents female mosquitoes' offspring from surviving to adulthood. Another one is a fluorescent marker gene that glows under a special red light that allows researchers to identify GM mosquitoes in the wild. GM mosquitoes produce in a lab-lay eggs, which carry the self-limiting and fluorescent marker.
Used for mosquito control when the egg hatch, they develop into adult mosquitoes. These mosquitoes mate with wild females. Makes sense. The genes are passed on to offspring. The expected result of using GM mosquitoes is that number of AE mosquitoes in that area decreases. It's pretty wild. Did you know that the only female mosquitoes bite? They need a blood meal to produce eggs. Male mosquitoes do not bite.

**SPEAKER_3** (3:01)
Typical.

**SPEAKER_2** (3:02)
They feed on nectar from flowers. Tom, your thoughts on this. Does this concern you at all?

**SPEAKER_5** (3:07)
Yes, because you know what? I find this to be ridiculous. You know, I find this to be ridiculous. I don't trust it. Because California and Florida do have something in common, and that is massive agriculture crops. You know, there are grapefruit and oranges, and it's called Orange County around Orlando for a reason, and it was called Orange County in Southern California for a reason. So check this out, Pat.
Fruit flies can be a problem. They can infest orange groves, grapefruits, lemons. You saw all the lemons. We used to drive up through Ventura County toward Santa Barbara, and you could see lemon groves, all this stuff. Well, check this out. Fruit flies became a problem, and scientists came up and says, Hey, you know what we could do? We could breed a bunch of sterile males. We can breed a bunch of fruit flies. We'll sterilize the male with chemical or radiation or something. We'll have some various techniques, and then we'll release them out into the wild, and then they'll mate with the females, and the females won't get pregnant, and there'll be no more fruit flies, and we'll cause it. They spent millions and millions, I think even billions of dollars on it. And guess what happened?
The neutered male fruit flies were less strong, and they didn't fly as well. And sometimes they would mate with the female, and then she would turn around and then mate with a wild male fruit fly and get pregnant anyway.