Mosquitoes are an annoyance at best, and a danger at worst on the Central and South Coasts because of West Nile virus and Zika virus concerns.
Some U-C Santa Barbara researchers are part of an effort at six UC campuses to try to develop safer, and more effective ways that pesticides to control the insects.
The scientists are sharing nearly $15 million dollars in federal grant money to try to use genetic modification to control mosquitos. The four year project calls for testing the effort on specific species of mosquitoes, to see if it can be safely done and used as an abatement technique. The tests will be done in labs, and not in the wild to see if something can be developed which could eventually be used in the natural environment.