Sterilizing insects

I had a question for UC Riverside entomologist Dr. Amy Murello. Bark beetles are killing our national forests. You've got mite problems, mosquitoes. Is there not a body of research somewhere in the world of entomology where we could introduce some sort of genetic neutering and as a result of that, start limiting populations of unwanted insects?

Yeah. This idea of steralization is actually not new. I don't know if you're familiar with screwworms, but they were a devastating livestock pest in the 50s. And they're fly maggots that feed on living flesh. So if you had cattle and it had a flesh wound these flies would lay eggs and the maggots would cause a lot of damage as they're feeding. And that fly has essentially been eradicated from North America through this idea of sterilization. And that was done with radiation. They were irradiated. So it wasn't even a genetic component. Now there are lots of people trying to solve mosquito problems, looking at either genetic modification or some other method of sterilization. But there are just a lot of factors like mosquitoes’ life cycles are pretty complex. It can mate multiple times and lay multiple batches of eggs.

It makes a lot more difficult to use this type of control and other insect species. Hopefully we'll get there sooner than later.