Why Mosquitoes Are Being Dropped Using Drones In Hawaii? Scientists Explain

Scientists are dropping swarms of mosquitoes using a giant drone in the remote forests of Hawaii. Though the experiment may seem straight out of a horror sci-fi movie, the scientists are dropping these hated insects to resurrect life in Hawaii.

The beautiful tropical island is facing an extinction crisis. Colourful songbirds known as honeycreepers that were once abundant in Hawaii are struggling to survive because of avian malaria, transmitted by invasive mosquitoes.

To help these birds rebound, scientists have now come up with a plan. The drones are being used to drop lab-reared, non-biting male mosquitoes that have been engineered to carry a bacteria strain that interferes with reproduction.

By continuously releasing these special males into honeycreeper habitats where malaria is spreading, scientists are hoping to erode the population of biting mosquitoes and thus suppress the spread of disease.

The project is being spearheaded by "Birds, Not Mosquitoes", a coalition of nonprofit organisations working to protect native Hawaiian birds. Since the mosquito project started in November 2023, they have released over 40 million males in honeycreeper habitats in Maui and Kauai.

"What this does is it erects an invisible barrier so that these mosquitoes can't get up to the forests where these birds remain," Chris Farmer, Hawaii program director at American Bird Conservancy, a conservation group that's leading the drone effort, told Vox.

“Without significantly reducing invasive mosquito populations, multiple native bird species will disappear forever in the near future. At least 33 species of honeycreeper are now extinct, and many of the 17 that remain, including the Kiwikiu and ʻĀkohekohe on Maui, and ʻAkekeʻe on Kauaʻi, are highly endangered," he added.

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Though it is unclear at this stage if unleashing the reproductively challenged mosquitoes was yielding any result, scientists remain hopeful that they might be able to save the honeycreepers population.

Notably, mosquitoes are not native to Hawaii. But after a whaling ship accidentally brought them to the islands in 1826, they proliferated and thrived in the warm, humid climate.